• No. 9 seed Daria Kasatkina meets unseeded Camila Giorgi in the Eastbourne International semifinals
• Giorgi advanced when Jelena Ostapenko retired after one set in Thursday’s quarterfinals
• Kasatkina is 2-0 lifetime vs Giorgi. We break down the matchup and make a prediction

Both Camila Giorgi and Daria Kasatkina got injury retirements in the Eastbourne International quarterfinals Thursday, leaving them nice and fresh for Friday’s semifinal (about 7 a.m. ET).

Giorgi vs Kasatkina Odds

At -170 odds, Kasatkina is a favorite over Giorgi, but not an overwhelming one. Giorgi is the underdog at +140 odds with the over/under on games sitting at 21.5. The winner will play the winner between Madison Keys and Coco Gauff in Saturday’s final.

Odds as of June 29 at DraftKings. Get a DraftKings promo code to bet on Giorgi vs Kasatkina at the Eastbourne International.

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Giorgi Gets a Pass from Ostapenko

The hard-hitting quarterfinal between Giorgi and Jelena Ostapenko was so promising, during a long first set of hard-hitting fury.

But Ostapenko, who has played a ton of tennis (both singles and doubles) on the grass, including a title in Birmingham last week and a semifinal in the doubles, sort of hit the wall.

5 – Only Martina Navratilova (nine) has more top-10 wins in Eastbourne than Camila Giorgi (five) since the inception of this event in 1974. Feeling.#RothesayInternational | @WTA @WTA_insider @the_LTA pic.twitter.com/fktBOg59bf

— OptaAce (@OptaAce) June 29, 2023

She took a medical timeout before the first set tiebreak to have her vitals checked, after being broken when she initially attempted to serve it out. And she had some set points in the tiebreak, too. But after losing it 10-8,the Latvian was up at the net, through with the cursory handshakes, packed and off the court before the chair umpire could even announce it to the crowd.

Bonus for Giorgi, indeed. And she’s into the Eastbourne semifinal for the third consecutive year.

Kasatkina Gets a Gift from Garcia

For Daria Kasatkina, originally unseeded at Eastbourne despite being ranked No. 11 in the world, it’s been a week where everything has helpfully fallen into place.

Originally, she was slotted to meet Coco Gauff in the second round. After being promoted to the No. 9 seed after No. 6 Maria Sakkari was a late scratch, she ended up in the bottom quarter of the draw with a better look at a deeper run.

Just checking the grass court quality from closer 🧐
All good ✅ #RothesayInternational @WTA https://t.co/uyWaXiR9x7

— Caroline Garcia (@CaroGarcia) June 27, 2023

But her three-set win over Karolina Pliskova was still impressive (even if Pliskova hadn’t won a match since April coming into Eastbourne). And in the quarterfinals against Caroline Garcia, she got another break.

Like Giorgi with Ostapenko, Kasatkina was able to stroll through after the No. 2 seed pulled the plug, already down 2-6, 1-2 with Kasatkina up a break. Garcia made the quarterfinals in Berlin a week ago, but still took a wild card into Eastbourne.

So at least in this case, both Giorgi and Kasatkina come in with equal “rest” and relatively fresh.

Giorgi vs Kasatkina Head-to-Head

Kasatkina 2-0 vs Giorgi on Head-to-Head

It’s not a rivalry for the ages but Kasatkina, who never even played Giorgi until 2020 despite both having been on tour for many years, has beaten her twice in two tries.

The first meeting, which was on a faster indoor hard court and is more comparable to grass, was a tough three-setter.

You can see how Kasatkina’s spin and changes of speed would befuddle the Giorgi freight train on clay. The Italian feeds off the pace of her opponent and delivers plenty of it herself. But Kasatkina can use the same tools to befuddle her on grass as well, and the low-bouncing, skiddy ball may well cause problems for Giorgi and up the unforced error count.

Giorgi vs Kasatkina Match History

That said, Giorgi clearly likes Eastbourne. It’s her third consecutive semifinal there. And the way she handled all the changes of pace from Ons Jabeur earlier in the week suggests she can do so again.

Giorgi vs Kasatkina Prediction

On the flip side, the way Giorgi struggled to even take the first set over a visibly wiped-out Ostapenko tells you it might also not be her week.

And Kasatkina has played enough hard hitters to get her groove on the pace she’ll face on Friday.

Giorgi vs Kasatkina Prediction: Kasatkina Loses the First Set, Wins the Match (+700)

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