Miami Open 2024: Victoria Azarenka vs Yulia Putintseva; Preview, Head-to-Head, and Prediction

Victoria Azarenka recently secured a dominating 7-5,6-1 victory over the British tennis star, Katie Boutler at the R16 of the 2024 Miami Open. She’ll be now facing Yulia Putintseva in the QF of the tournament in Magic City. Azarenka is an experienced campaigner on the women’s tour. While Putintseva has been in prolific form in this tournament, who has the upper hand in this nail-biting contest?

Victoria Azarenka has already won this tournament three times in her career. She will now look forward to getting an inch closer to her fourth title in Miami with a victory against the Kazakhstani at the Hard Rock Stadium.

Victoria Azarenka vs Yulia Putintseva: Preview

The two-time Grand Slam champion started her season by reaching the SF of the Brisbane International and then the fourth round of the AO. Even in the Qatar Open, Azarenka looked to be in good form before eventually losing her match in the QF against Iga Swiatek. She couldn’t do much in her next two tournaments but made a stellar comeback in Miami by making it to the QF defeating some prominent names of the WTA world.

On the other hand, Yulia Putintseva started her season with a loss in her first match at the ASB Classic. She reached the QF in Hobart but made an early exit from the AO this year. However, the Kazakh tennis star did well in the Hua Hin Championship, reaching the QF of the tournament, but promptly failed to qualify for the main event in the Middle East Tour. At the Indian Wells, she was defeated by the world number 1, Iga Swiatek in the R16 clash. 

Yulia Putintseva is now just one win away from setting a new personal record in the WTA 1000 event. In fact, this is her best-ever run in Miami. How far can she go this year at this tournament?

Azarenka vs Putintseva: Head-to-Head

This will be their third meeting on the Tour. They last met each other at the 2022 Qatar Open, where Azarenka defeated Putintseva by 5-7,6-2,7-5. Looking at the stats, Azarenka has played 28 matches over the past year on hard courts, totaling 20.1 games per match while winning 55.0% of the games. Putintseva has averaged 21.4 games per match and 9.8 games per set through her 40 matches on the same surface in the past 12 months. Her win percentage in these has been 53.7%.

Victoria Azarenka has solid match records over the last ten years. She has won 68% of her matches (210-100) and her win-loss record on the hard courts this year has been 13-5. The Belarusian tennis star has an aggregate 142-63 match record in the last year on a hard court. What about Yulia Putintseva?

The Kazakh star has conceded only 3 sets in the 2024 Miami Open so far, having won 53% of the points she has played and has an aggregate win-loss record of 14-8 on the hard courts this year. Interestingly, Putintseva reached the fourth round at the Miami Open in 2019. Can she find a little bit of consistency in her performance at the bigger stages of the game this year?

Prediction: Azarenka will proceed to the semifinals of the 2024 Miami Open

Looking at the results of their previous meetings and the experience that Victoria Azarenka carries in her bag, she looks to be the favorite in the contest by quite a big margin. Putintseva has suffered 8 losses this season and all of those have come on the hard courts. In fact, Yulia Putintseva has never advanced past QF at a WTA 1000 tournament. 

So, Azarenka would surely handle the pressure of the big match quite comfortably than the 29YO Kazakhstani tennis star. But that doesn’t mean fans would be deprived of an exciting contest. What’s your prediction for this match? 

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