Angelina Kalinina – Kimberly Birrell. WTA 500 match prediction in Brisbane

On the night of January 3, a Ukrainian tennis player Angelina Kalinin (WTA 55) will continue her performances at the WTA 500 hardcourt tournament in Brisbane, Australia.

In the 1/4 finals, the Ukrainian will play against Kimberly Birrell (Australia, WTA 113). The game starts at 03:00 Kyiv time.

Sport.ua will conduct a video broadcast of the match.

Angelina Kalinin

I didn’t expect anything from Kalinina at these competitions, so with each of her victories, the joy and faith in the country grew and grew.

Now Angelina is already in the quarterfinals and the chances of entering the decisive match of the tournament are quite high. The grid is not bad, and after the victory over Birrell in the semi-finals, either Ashlyn Kruger or Polina Kudermetova is possible. More faith in the American woman, but now it’s not about that. Angelina needs to get through Kimberly first, because we all know the saying about “hop” and “skip”.

I believe that Birrell will have an emotional advantage. The girls will play on the center court of Pat Rafter Arena, Kimberly is Australian, so it is clear who the fans will support. But Angelina on the Brisbane courts simply “keep calm and play”, so it is very important to maintain stability and not break down during the match.

As for the game aspects, everything is very good for Angelina. She has fully recovered from the ailments and injuries that have dogged her since the summer of 2024, and has played well in her first three games in Brisbane, beating the tenacious two Chinese women and No. 13 Schneider. In all matches in Brisbane, Angelina served with the first ball in 60%+ cases and in which she won more than 70% of the points. Only with Wang Yafan was 63%, but even that match ended prematurely.

On the second balls, Kalinin does not look so confident, but… And who among the women can boast of a good friend? The main thing is that the Ukrainian does not make double mistakes, which is also very important in the women’s Tour. Angelina beat all three opponents with a first serve win rate below 50%. It is difficult to draw any conclusions from this – the indicators are simply good and reliable, and the game does not depend only on one thing: receiving or serving.

Kimberly does not stand out with anything special and the main advantage of the Australian will be the stands. Emotions are good, you can get excited, get back into the game from an almost lost match, but Angelina has always been low-emotional, so the main thing is to keep all her qualities and calmly do the job.

Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Angelina Kalinin Kimberly Birrell

They said about the fans, so we won’t go back to it again. Kimberly passed Priscilla Hone, Emma Navarro and Anastasia Potapova on her way. Funnily enough, Birrell’s most problematic matchup was against Hohn, where she had to come back from a first set loss.

Kimberly has a similar situation with statistical indicators to Kalinina both in serving and receiving. Angelina is 10 centimeters taller, but this does not make a big difference. But still, I won’t hesitate to say that the styles of the girls are similar. There is something wrong. Perhaps the fact that Angelina runs a little less on the court and puts more emphasis on quality and reliable play on the back line. I don’t know…

However, it is safe to say that Birrell will be a very difficult opponent. The bookies favor Angelina and have her as a slight favorite, but I would rate the odds as roughly equal.

Kimberly beat more ranked opponents than Angelina + with a more punchy style. And vice versa. If Kalinina has already played with Chinese women who like to drag out draws and tie in rallies, then Navarro and Potapova are about aggression. Perhaps the change of accent will play into the hands of Kalininia.

Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Kimberly Birrell Angelina Kalinin – Kimberly Birrell match prediction

As already mentioned above, Angelina is the favorite. But taking the victory of the Ukrainian woman for 1.69 is not the most reliable and not even the most interesting option. Bookmakers offer good odds for a medical time-out – 3.50. Given the fact that it will be the third match in the third day for each, and in the event of a prolonged match, it is quite possible that someone will turn to the physio.

Well, if we consider the patriotic bet, the victory of Kalinina + a total of more than 19.5 games at 2.37 looks like a good option.