Two WTA Rising Stars are set to meet in the finals of the WTA Grand Prix de Sar La Princesse in Morocco as Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine and Timea Babos of Hungary booked their spots in the final. With a title here, either women could kick start their season especially heading into the Madrid and Rome swing and the French Open. Just like Prague, the court plays like a hard court, but unlike the Czech capital, the clay is being used more for sliding.
Fourth-seeded Elina Svitolina stands at 5’9”, but she packs quite the punch. She can get down-low for shots like Agnieszka Radwanska but hits her groundstrokes with much more pace. Her backhand is by far her best shot, but her movement is very good and can mask the problems she has with her less-powerful backhand. Angles are her best friend especially on the forehand side. Svitolina faced only one seeded player on the way to the final (seventh-seeded Anna Schmiedlova), but her draw was not easy also facing Karin Knapp, Donna Vekic, and Christina McHale. She dropped only one set en route to the final and is the slight favorite heading into tomorrow.
Timea Babos hails from Hungary and is not as ranked as high as her opponent (Svitolina: 25, Babos: 86), but that does not mean she will be any pushover. Babos has the serve and forehand to push Svitolina off the court as her serve, especially the body serve, should give her opponent some trouble. Defeating third-seed Flavia Pennetta on the way to the final, should give Babos the confidence to try and pull off another upset tomorrow and get her ranking up.
Tomorrow, look for Svitolina to try and hit to Babos’ backhand often, but Babos will try and hit that back with pace trying to force Svitolina to play much more defensive tennis. Another thing to keep an eye out on tomorrow is the serving from the Hungarian. If Babos can get her first serves down, Svitolina will have trouble breaking her serve.
Prediction: Elina Svitolina in three sets.