WTA National Bank Open Montreal Final Preview: Pliskova - Giorgi

While the resurgence of Pliskova has been a fascinating thing to watch, the rapid emergence of Camila Giorgi as a star on the hard courts has been the more fascinating development. The hard-hitting risky style the Italian employs has been well known for years but the consistency has never been there.

Some of it flashed in Tokyo but it finally clicked here. Giorgi has been playing the best tennis of her career which gave her the opportunity to play for the biggest trophy of her career. The road to the final saw her best some tough opposition (Mertens, Podoroska, Kvitova, Gauff and Pegula).

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Karolina Pliskova had a no less impressive showing in Montreal. Her road to the final included victories over Vekic, Anisimova, Sorribes Tormo and Sabalenka. The Czech player played inconsistently all year but flashed several times (Rome, Wimbledon). Another one of those flashes came here in Montreal where she dominated rallies against most players.

A lot of her success has come down to her serve which worked extremely well against Sabalekna. When Pliskova serves well she is almost unplayable and that will be the key to this match. If the Czech player is forced to play a lot of 2nd service points she will run into a buzzsaw. Giorgio will punish all shorter balls with deadly precision as she has all week long.

Pliskova leads the H2H 5-3 but their most recent match came at the Olympics and Giorgi won it rather easily 6-4 6-2. The Italian's confidence is sky-high so Pliskova will need to bring her best. The match starts at 18:00 CET.