 Alina Rabakina vs. Jasmine Pallini is the first quarter-final for the ladies' soot guard open for 2024, and both players have had different rows to get to this stage. Pallini entered the tournament unseeded and will take on Arani in the first round, which is no problem getting through in straights. 6-1, 6-love. In the second round she take on Anchebeurre, the number seven seed, who had just been in Alex Androva in an epic match in the first round, and after a very close first set tie break, Pallini would get through in straights 7-6-6-4 to advance to the quarter-finals. Rabakina entered the tournament as the number four seed and will get a buy in the first round. In the second round she take on Kudamatova, who had just beaten Krajikova in the first round, and this was a battle. After splitting the first two sets, Rabakina would eventually win in 3, 7-6-1, 6-6-4 to advance to the quarter-finals. These two were played two times before with the head-to-head split down the middle 1-1, including a match last year in Rome, where Rabakina got the win in straights sets, but they weren't supposed to play in Dubai this year. Rabakina having to pull out, Pallini ended up winning that tournament after that walkover, so it's going to be really fun to see this year's Pallini take on Rabakina finally after we got robbed of missing that match in Dubai. Pallini is going to win this one, she needs to get everything back. We saw her do that against Jabur, which was really successful, just be a brick wall, get everything back and she needs to fire up. She's already going to do that anyway, that's how she plays. She gets really fired up and that's where this matchup is going to be really, really fun to watch. Rabakina is going to win this one, she's a limit of the errors. The second set against Kudamatova was terrible, she just completely disappeared and she can't do that against Pallini, because Pallini is too emotional, too fired up and too determined to win this matchup. So she's got to play much better Rabakina from the start and keep that going throughout the entire match. Really fun matchup, such a different clash in styles, clash in personalities, fire and ice, but I've got to go with Rabakina in this one. In a close three setter, I reckon she squeaks it out at the end. Pallini's been great this week, she played a great match against Jabur, but I reckon that Rabakina probably overpowers her in the end on these courts, but let me know down in the comments below who's making the semis.