The second semi-final in the women’s draw at the 2024 Australian Open, one of the premier tennis events of the season, is set after an exciting night of action at Rod Laver Arena.
Yastremska vs Zheng Picks
- Pick: Yastremska +165
As expected, 21-year-old Chinese player Qinwen Zheng beat Anna Kalinskaya, while Ukrainian qualifier Dayana Yastremska continued her miraculous run with a win over 19-year-old Czech Linda Noskova, setting up a semi-final matchup nobody anticipated.
Let’s take a look at how both players got here and look ahead to the Yastremska vs Zheng betting analysis.
Dayana Yastremska vs Qinwen Zheng Matchup Information
Dayana Yastremska vs Qinwen Zheng
Location of the game: Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia
Date & Time: Thursday, January 25 at 4:45 a.m. ET
How to Watch: ESPN and TSN (Canada)
Dayana Yastremska vs Qinwen Zheng Recent Scores
Yastremska, ranked No. 93 in the world, beat Noskova 6-3, 6-4 in the quarter-finals on Tuesday. The 23-year-old qualifier had three aces, won 76 percent of points on first serve, and was 3-of-5 in breakpoint opportunities. She has also beaten Viktoria Azarenka, Emma Navarro, Varvara Gracheva, and Marketa Vondrousova. She also had to win three qualifiers to even be involved in the Australian Open predictions, so she’s currently on an eight-match winning streak.
Zheng, meanwhile, comes into the Yastremska vs. Zheng betting analysis after rallying to beat Kalinskaya 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-1. She had 10 aces in the match, won 80 percent of points on first serve, and was 6-of-9 in breakpoint opportunities. Zheng hasn’t had as tough of a road to the semi-finals, beating Oceane Dodin, Yafan Wang, Katie Boulter, and Ashlyn Krueger, all of whom are ranked outside of the top 50.
Dayana Yastremska vs Qinwen Zheng Betting Analysis
Yastremska Making History as a Qualifier
Yastremska is only the second qualifier in the Open Era to make the Australian Open semi-finals in the women’s draw, joining Christine Story who accomplished the feat in 1978. Including qualifying matches, she has been on the court for 13 hours and 39 minutes and is starting to feel the fatigue, even if it didn’t look that way in her convincing quarter-final victory: “I’m super happy [and] very tired,” she said after the match.
Luckily, Yastremska needed just 1 hour and 18 minutes to win her match, meaning she was on court an hour less than Zheng, who needed 2 hours and 20 minutes to win her quarter-final match. In other tennis stats, Yastremska is 10-1 overall this season, all on hard courts. She was 19-13 on hard courts last season. She has lost just one set through five main draw tennis matchups but needed three sets to win each of her qualifiers.
Zheng into First Grand Slam Semifinal
Zheng is into her first grand slam semi-final, but has by far had the easiest path to this point among the other three semifinalists. The 12th seed was the second-highest in her section of the bracket, which included two qualifiers and three protected ranking players. She hasn’t exactly cruised to the semi-finals either, needing three sets to win her first-round match and winning in a third-set tiebreak over Wang in the third round.
Zheng is now 30-12 on outdoor hard courts going back to last season. She has spent a total of 9 hours and 52 minutes on the court and is coming off a particularly grueling quarter-final match. She has never played Yastremska.
Updates
Both players are healthy with no injury concerns for the Yastremska vs. Zheng betting analysis. The winner will play the winner of Aryna Sabalenka vs. Coco Gauff in the final.
Dayana Yastremska vs Qinwen Zheng Betting Preview
Yastremska is once again the betting underdog with tennis odds of +165 for the moneyline. Zheng is a -225 moneyline favorite. Yastremska has a +3.5 (-125) match handicap and the game’s total is 22.5 per BetUS Sportsbook.
Dayana Yastremska vs Qinwen Zheng Betting Prediction
Considering the easy path Zheng has had to get to the Australian Open semi-final and the fact that Yastremska has taken down three top-30 ranked players, there’s good value in taking the underdog here. Yastremska is riding a wave of momentum down under and she should be able to keep that going.
- Pick: Yastremska +165
If you love sports and want more sports betting information follow us as @InsidersBetDig on Twitter and sign up to our mailing list for free betting picks. Make sure to visit the best offshore betting sites to maximize your betting experience.