Jelena Ostapenko vs Veronika Kudermetova Odds & Prediction – WTA Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships Final

• Finalists Jelena Ostapenko and Veronika Kudermetova are meeting for the first time ever
• With all the top-10 players entered in Dubai this week, two unseeded players survive
• We break down their road to the final, analyze the matchup and make a prediction

All of the pre-tournament talk before the Dubai Duty Free Championships was about the number of top-10 players entered – extremely high for a WTA 500 level event.

It was … all of them, with the exception of world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty.

Some of the prospective first-round matchups were worthy of the final.

Still, in the end, two top-10 players withdrew and almost all the seeds lost early. So the last two standing are unseeded Jelena Ostapenko vs Veronika Kudermetova.

Jelena Ostapenko vs Veronika Kudermetova Odds

Odds as of Feb. 18 at DraftKings

Ostapenko was 16th among the top 18 players on the odds list before the tournament. Meanwhile, at +3000. Kudermetova didn’t even make the top 18.

Given she reached the semifinals the previous week in St. Petersburg, the Latvian wasn’t a bad pick as a long shot. If you did take the plunge, it might work out extremely well.

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Ostapenko With a Crazy-Tough Draw

Ostapenko had the tougher draw by far.

Every opponent was a fairly recent former Grand Slam champion: Sofia Kenin, Iga Swiatek , Petra Kvitova and Simona Halep.

And Ostapenko (a major champion herself) defeated all of them. The matches against Kvitova and Swiatek went to third-set tiebreaks.

That’s arguably a tougher road than it would take to get to a final at a WTA 1000 or a Grand Slam.

(Noteworthy, you can get odds of +1600 for this final also going to a third-set tiebreak).

Jelena Ostapenko vs Veronika Kudermetova Head-to-Head

Kudermetova On Unexpected Roll

Kudermetova didn’t come into Dubai on much of a roll. Belinda Bencic defeated her in the first round in St. Petersburg in a close one (a third-set tiebreak). Then again, Bencic has pretty much owned Kudermetova, even back in the juniors.

The Russian defeated Victoria Azarenka in the first round in Dubai. Then she took care of No. 4 seed Garbiñe Muguruza.

Wild day in Dubai.

Seeds #1 (Sabalenka), #2 (Krejcikova), #4 (Muguruza) and #6 (Swiatek) all lost.

In the QFs, the only seed left is #8 Jabeur.

AND YET

Grand Slam champs Kvitova, Ostapenko, Halep all remain in the draw. And Grand Slam finalist Vondrousova.

— The Tennis Podcast (@TennisPodcast) February 16, 2022

But after that, the road was smooth.

Kudermetova drew lucky loser Jil Teichmann in the quarterfinals. Marketa Vondrousova, who had come from the qualifying, withdrew and gave her a walkover into the final.

First Career Meeting

Ostapenko and Kudermetova, somewhat surprisingly, are meeting for the first time in the pros.

As it happens, they will meet twice on Saturday as both also are in the doubles final.

And despite being born just six weeks apart, they never met in the juniors, either.

the comeback kid 🇱🇻 Jelena Ostapenko does it again

Dubai finals here she comes ⬆️ moves to #15 in the rankings pic.twitter.com/r5V3QqBgRt

— Ryan (@Some1NamedRyan) February 18, 2022

The match will be a hard-hitting one, pretty one-dimensional in that sense. Kudermetova is far more reliable on serve. But despite Ostapenko’s wonky technique and notorious propensity for double faults, she has a unique ability to overcome that. And to dominate the court with her personality.

Ostapenko also is far more experienced at closing out finals. Winning a Grand Slam (along with three other titles, most recently Eastbourne on grass in 2021) helps. Then again, she also has lost six finals.

Kudermetova has one title, earned last year on the American clay in Charleston. She reached the final of a tuneup event before the Australian Open last month.

Ostapenko Has the “It” Factor

Ostapenko didn’t beat four Grand Slam champions to get to a final, only to lose to No. 31. She definitely has the intangibles.

She doesn’t move as smoothly as the Russian. But she moves with … great determination. And despite her tough week, she’s one of those players who never seems to run out of energy.

But Ostapenko did play a lot more tennis on Friday. She went three sets in singles and won in a match tiebreak in the doubles after losing the first set. Kudermetova played just two sets of singles.

So the Latvian will be well-served to close it out in straight sets (which sits at +130). But she tends to make her life more complicated than it should be.

Best Bet: Ostapenko in three sets (+230)