2021 Wimbledon women’s final info, recent form, betting and preview: Ashleigh Barty vs Karolina Pliskova

Shahida Jacobs
July 9, 2021

It is Ashleigh Barty vs Karolina Pliskova in the 2021 Wimbledon final, but only one will hold aloft the Venus Rosewater Dish come Saturday afternoon on Centre Court at SW19. Who is your money on?

We give you all the important information you need ahead of the big match.

Ashleigh Barty

Age: 25
World ranking: 1
Career-high ranking: 1
Career singles titles: 11
Grand Slam singles titles: 1
Career prize money: $18,798,304

Barty is looking to win her second Grand Slam title following her success at the 2018 French Open while she also hopes to become the first Australian since the great Evonne Goolagong Cawley to win the Wimbledon title.

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Karolina Pliskova

Age: 29
World ranking: 13
Career-high ranking: 1
Career singles titles: 16
Grand Slam singles titles: 0
Career prize money: $20,973,860

Having finished runner-up in her only previous final at the 2018 US Open, Pliskova is looking to go one better at Wimbledon this year. She is also looking to follow in the footsteps of fellow Czechs Jana Novotna, Petra Kvitova and Barbora Krejcikova and win a Grand Slam.

Recent form

Ashleigh Barty has been one of the most consistent players in 2021 as she has won three titles (Yarra Valley Classic, Miami Open, Stutgart Open) and also finished runner-up at the Madrid Open.

Her path to Wimbledon was not the smoothest as she picked up an injury at the Italian Open and was forced to withdraw from her quarter-final clash and then also retired from her second-round match at the French Open.

After opting not to play in any grass-court warm-up events, the Australian has excelled at SW19 and has dealt with everything thrown at her. She has only dropped one set, in the first round against Carla Suarez Navarro, and beat recently crowned French Open champion Krejcikova and three-time Grand Slam winner Angelique Kerber along the way.

Karolina Pliskova’s form, especially on grass, was quite patchy heading to Wimbledon as she lost her opening matches in the WTA 500 events in Berlin and Eastbourne while she also made a second-round exit from the French Open.

You have to go back to the Italian Open for her last decent run as she finished runner-up to Iga Swiatek in Rome while a quarter-final in Stuttgart is her next best performance of the season.

Aryna Sabalenka was the only seeded player she beat in her run to the final.

Ashleigh Barty vs Karolina Pliskova head-to-head

The Australian comfortably leads the H2H as she has won five of their seven encounters with the most-recent victory a come-from-behind 2-6, 6-1, 7-5 win in the quarter-final in Stuttgart.

Barty also won the 2019 WTA Finals semi-final and 2019 Miami Open final.

You have to go back to the 2018 US Open round of 16 for Pliskova’s last win as the Czech claimed a 6-4, 6-4 victory on that occasion.

What they’ve said

“Everything had to be spot on to give myself a chance to play pain-free and to play knowing that I could trust my body. I’ve said time and time again, I’m extremely fortunate to have my team around me. They’re the best in the business. They’ve given me this opportunity to come out here and to play.

“I’m pretty excited that I could repay them the favour in a way of giving us an opportunity as a collective, as a whole, to do something pretty special this week.

“I think to know that my body’s held up over a fortnight off a different preparation, it wasn’t limited, but it was different, and being able to accept that, just know that I could trust everything that we’ve done to the best of our ability is incredible.

“If you told me a month ago we’d be sitting in this position, I really wouldn’t have thought that we would even get close. I think it’s pretty special what we’ve been able to do the last month.” – Ashleigh Barty

Ashleigh Barty post-match interview

“I can’t believe it because somehow, like, coming into this tournament, the dream was to make the second week, of course, because I was not in the second week for a while. Never I thought about, like, maybe going into the final.

“Sascha was super confident in me. He said, I told you you were going to make the final. Like after the match he said.

“So many amazing players in the draw. Also, like her, I never beat her. Actually I knew it’s gonna be like super close because we both serving big, so I knew there’s going to be, like, many small chances. Especially after losing the first set, I thought it was going to be super tough to win this match.

“Then to win two sets in a row with the way how she was serving today, I think she was serving incredible, all my chances she just put, like, amazing serves in.

“Yeah, like super proud about the way how I handled the situation out there, the second and third set, and that I served out the match.” – Karolina Pliskova

Ashleigh Barty vs Karolina Pliskova final betting

Ashleigh Barty is the favourite with the bookmakers to win Saturday’s Wimbledon final as she is 4/11 at Planet Sport Bet with Karolina Pliskova 2/1.

If you are looking for good value for money then perhaps you should put a few bucks on Pliskova to win a three-setter at 9/2.

Karolina Pliskova to win Wimbledon final in three sets? Take a punt with Planet Sport Bet.

Pliskova is also the underdog when it comes to winning the first set as she is 7/4.

Karolina Pliskova takes the applause

Conclusion

It is very difficult to look past world No 1 Ashleigh Barty as she is in form and generally performs very well in the big matches. It would be easy to say that Barty hasn’t really been tested at SW19, but she did find herself on the backfoot against Krejcikova and Kerber, but dug herself out of holes without much fuss.

After many disappointments the past few years, Pliskova has finally managed to put together a good run to go beyond the semi-final stage for the first time since 2019. It is also her first final since losing the 2016 US Open final against Kerber.

Barty appears to be in a class and a zone of her own and the Venus Rosewater Dish appears to be the Australian’s to lose. You can never discount final nerves, especially with it being a first-time Wimbledon final for both, but Barty has rarely been overcome by the occasion.

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Ashleigh Barty Karolina Pliskova