 Alina Rabakina vs. Petra Kovitava is the final for the Miami Open for 2023 and both ladies have to fight to get to this stage. Kovitava started the tournament off as number 15 seed and would get a buy in the first round. In the second round she take on the Czech youngster Nuskova in a battle of the generations but this was easy for Kovitava winning in straight sets 6-3-6 love. In the third round she take on another 22 seed Vekic and after a close second set Kovitava will get through in straights 6-4-7-6. In the fourth round she take on the qualifier and after a very close set in the second Kovitava will get through 7-5-7-6 to advance to the quarter finals. In the quarter finals Kovitava will take on the number 18 seed Alexandrova and after dropping the second set would have to fight to win in 3-6-4-3-6-6-3 to advance to the semi-finals. In the semi-finals Kovitava will take on the unseated Castella who had just taken out Saber Lenker in the previous round and after going down an early break Kovitava would have to fight back to win getting through in straights 7-5-6-4 to advance to the final. Rabakina started the tournament off as the number 10 seed and would get a buy in the first round. In the second round she take on Callan Skyar and after dropping the second set Rabakina was forced to fight eventually getting through in 3-7-5-4-6-6-3 to advance to the third round. In the third round she take on Bodosa the 21st seed who had had a battle in her previous round and after losing the first set and being down match point Rabakina fought back to win 3-6-7-5-6-3 to get to the fourth round. In the fourth round she take on the unseated Mertens who had beaten Kazakina and Martic along the way and this was by far the best performance from Rabakina for the week getting through in straight sets 6-4-6-3 to advance to the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals Rabakina would take on Treveson the 25th seed getting through easily in straight sets 6-3-6-love to advance to the semi-finals. In the semi-finals Rabakina would take on the number 3 Pagula who had just saved match points against Potapova to make it to this stage and this was a very ugly match from both ladies with chances Pagula to win the first set and a long reign delay after the first set Rabakina regrouped getting through in straights 7-6-6-4 to advance to the final. These two ladies have played the two times before with the record split down the middle 1-1 and then last meeting actually being in Australia before the Australian Open in Adelaide with Kovitava getting the straight sets win. Kovitava is going to win this one she needs to serve well she served really well against Castella after the first probably 30 minutes of the match she went down an early break ended up coming back and playing very very well after that against Alexanderova though she did lose a couple of those service games so she needs to serve well and she needs to be aggressive. Rabakina is going to win this one also comes down to the serve but she seems to have some sort of a back problem maybe from what she had before Indian Wells she was struggling with a back injury yet strapping on her back against Pagula in that semi-finals so she needs to manage that and with the extra day off that might be able to help her but she also needs to be aggressive in this one. This is basically a battle of the baseline whoever can cross the baseline will win this match I think Rabakina is going to win this one in a close three sets I'm going to give Kovitava a set because she's got such experience but Rabakina right now is just absolutely on fire sunshine double to be the fifth lady to do it but let me know down the comments below what do you think is going to happen