 Alina Rabakina vs Victoria Azarenka is the first semi-final for the ladies Miami Open for 2024. Both players had to fight to get to this stage. Azarenka into the tournament as the 27th seed and will get a buy in the first round. In the second round she played Stern who'd been very aggressive the last couple of weeks and very fun to watch. And after dropping the second set, Azarenka would fight to win 7-5-3-6-6-3. In the third round she'd take on Zheng, the number seven seed and Australian Open finalists. This was no problem getting through 6-4-7-5. In the fourth round she'd take on Bolta, the 24th seed who'd just taken out Hedadji Mayer in the previous round. And again, no problem for Azarenka getting through in straights 7-5-6-1 to advance to the quarter-final. In the quarter-finals Azarenka would take on Putt and Sever who'd been one of the surprise packages of the tournament. And after dropping the second set Azarenka would have to fight to win 7-6-1-6-6-3 to advance to the semi-final. Rabakina entered the tournament as the number four seed and will get a buy in the first round. In the second round she'd take on the qualifier Towson and after dropping the first set would have to fight back to win 3-6-7-5-6-4. In the third round she'd take on the qualifier Towson who'd just beaten Mertens in the previous round. And after dropping the second set would have to fight to win again in 3-6-3-6-7-6-4. Fourth round she'd take on the 17th seed Keys who was coming back from injury. And after a close second set Rabakina would get through in straights 6-3-7-5 to advance to the quarter-final. In the quarter-finals Rabakina would take on Sakuri, the number eight seed who she had a real battle with at the WTA finals last year. And this is no different with both players splitting the first two sets and Rabakina eventually winning in 3-7-5-6-7-6-4 to advance to the semi-final. This will play three times or four with Rabakina actually winning all three matches including a retirement victory in Dubai a couple of weeks ago. But the Dubai this round opened last year in the semi-finals with the first set being closed but Azarenka eventually going down in a straight sets win to Rabakina. So if anything to go by that's the match that you should probably look at. Azarenka is going to win this one she's to forget about the head to head and just go after it. Move Rabakina around we know that Rabakina has got some issues it seems like with the ankle problem that she seems to have gotten over the last couple of days so definitely move her around and test that ankle out and just move her around in general because we know that that is her weakness. Rabakina is going to win this one she's to serve well and be aggressive of course standing on the baseline and dominating the points that's where she's going to win this one. There will be a battle on the baseline between these two ladies so Rabakina's going to take over the baseline start with that serve. Very fun match up of course it was great to see these two playing a close match for once in Dubai but I'm going to go with Rabakina in this one in three sets. I think Azarenka has been really good maybe gets a set but I think that head to head especially if Rabakina is playing well which I expect she will be I think she's going to win this one in three but let me know down in the comments below who's making the final.