Kimberly Birrell and Sara Saito will face off in the quarter of the Japan Open Tennis Championships for the 1^st time in their career. They are scheduled to play on Friday at 4:30 pm on CENTER COURT. In the following paragraphs, you can find the head to head analysis and prediction.

Prediction, odds and live streaming

The pick for Tennis Tonic is Kimberly Birrell who should win in 3 sets.

As per the initial odds, Kimberly Birrell is the pick to win this match.
Kimberly Birrell -> 1.89
Sara Saito -> 1.909

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Prediction and head to head Kimberly Birrell vs. Sara Saito

There is no head to head record between Kimberly Birrell and Sara Saito since this will be the first time that they will square off in the main tour.

Kimberly Birrell

Ranked no. 150, the Australian reached the quarter after beating Sayaka Ishii 6-2 3-6 6-3, Jessika Ponchet 7-5 3-6 6-2

, Saisai Zheng 6-2 6-3 and Elise Mertens 3-6 7-5 4-1 ret..

In the 2^nd round against Mertens, Kimberly had a free pass after Mertens retired on a 3-6 7-5 4-1 . scoreline.

Birrell has winning record in the last 10 years having won 54% of her matches (206-172). 19-17 on hard in 2024. In connection with her performance on the same surface of this event, Birrell has a composed 149-114 match record in the last years on hard.

Her best result of the current year was conquering the title the W75 Fukuoka where she defeated Emina Bektas in the final 6-2 6-4.

The Australian has an overall 37-25 win-loss record in 2024, 19-17 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Previously in Osaka

The Australian has never competed in this tournament before.

Sara Saito

Ranked no. 179, Saito reached the quarter after defeating Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-3 6-2 and Elina Avanesyan 7-6(2) 6-4.

In the 2^nd round, Sara had a good straight sets win against Avanesyan (7-6² 6-4). During the match Saito scored 92 points vs Avanesyan’s 83. Saito was quite aggressive to blast 35 winners.

About the serving games, Saito scored just 1 ace during the entire match and she committed only 6 double faults. Sara Saito lost the serve 5 times and she saved 9 break points. Furthermore, Saito put 60% of her first serves in, winning 67% (35/52) of the points behind her 1st serve and 37% (13/35) on the 2nd serve. Sara broke Avanesyan 6 times after converting 43% of her break points (6/14).

Overall Performance in this tournament

Saito hasn’t dropped yet a set in the tournament to win 53% of the points she played.

Her best result of the season was conquering the title the W100 Biarritz where she overcame Margaux Rouvroy in the final 5-7 6-3 6-3.

Sara has an overall 36-16 win-loss record in 2024, 23-12 on hard (See FULL STATS).

Previously in Osaka

Saito has never competed in this tournament before.

H2H Performance in the tournament (main draw)

Matches, sets, games and points

Points	Birrell	Saito
Match played	4	2
Tot Set	12	4
Tot Games	98	40
Pts	341-293	150-132
Total Points	634	282
Winners	136	65
%Winners	40%	43%

Birrell played 4 matches while Saito competed in 2 matches. Birrell started her run from the qualifications while Saito had a direct access to the main draw. At the moment, Kimberly Birrell dropped 3 sets while Sara Saito hasn’t surrendered a set so far. Birrell has played 8 sets more than Saito (12 vs 4). Therefore, Birrell played 58 games more than Saito. Kimberly scored 136 winners (40% of the total points). On the other side, The Japanese fired 65 winners (43%).

Serve Performance

Serve	Birrell	Saito
Aces	16	2
Avg per match	4	1
1st in	191/300	94/151
%1st in	64%	62%
1st pts	136/191	65/94
%1st pts	71%	69%
2nd pts	59/109	25/57
%2nd pts	54%	44%

Birrell made 16 aces (4 per match). Saito made 2 aces (1 per match). Birrell won 71% points on her first serve. She extremely effective on her second serve to win 54% of the points. On the other side, Saito won 69% of the points behind her first serve. She had a solid display on her second serve to win 44% of the points.

How they played the important points

Breaks	Birrell	Saito
Won	17	9
Converted	17/40	9/18
% Converted	43%	50%
Conceded	26	17
Saved	18	12
% Saved	69%	71%
Times Broken	8	5

The Australian broke her opponents 17 times with a 43% conversion rate. Birrell conceded her serve 8 times and she saved 69% of the break points that she conceded. Sara broke her opponents 9 times with a 50% conversion rate. The Japanese conceded her serve 5 times and she saved 71% of the break points that she conceded.

Birrell
	Q1 Ishii	Q3 Ponchet	R1 Zheng	R2 Mertens	Total
Score	6-2 3-6 6-3	7-5 3-6 6-2	6-2 6-3	3-6 7-5 4-1 ret.
Tot Set	3	3	2	3	11
Tot Games	26	29	17	26	98
pts	95-81	90-88	59-32	97-92	341-293
Total points	176	178	91	189	634
Winners	36	42	20	38	136
%Winners	38%	47%	34%	39%	40%
SERVE
Aces	6	3	4	3	16
Double Faults	0	2	1	3	6
1st in	51/77	58/88	23/41	59/94	191/300
% 1st in	66%	66%	56%	63%	64%
1st pts	36/51	42/58	20/23	38/59	136/191
% 1st pts	71%	72%	87%	64%	71%
2nd pts	17/26	13/30	11/18	18/35	59/109
% 2nd pts	65%	43%	61%	51%	54%
Breaks
Won	4	4	5	4	17
Converted	4/13	4/7	5/8	4/12	17/40
Converted %	31%	57%	63%	33%	43%
Conceded	6	4	3	13	26
Saved	4/6	2/4	2/3	10/13	18
Saved %	67%	50%	67%	77%	65%
Times Broken	2	2	1	3	8

Saito
	R1 Bouzas	R2 Avanesyan	Total
Score	6-3 6-2	7-62 6-4
Tot Set	2	2	4
Tot Games	17	23	40
pts	58-49	92-83	150-132
Total points	107	175	282
Winners	30	35	65
%Winners	52%	38%	43%
SERVE
Aces	1	1	2
Double Faults	1	6	7
1st in	42/64	52/87	94/151
% 1st in	66%	60%	62%
1st pts	30/42	35/52	65/94
% 1st pts	71%	67%	69%
2nd pts	12/22	13/35	25/57
% 2nd pts	55%	37%	44%
Breaks
Won	3	6	9
Converted	3/4	6/14	9/18
Converted %	75%	43%	50%
Conceded	3	14	17
Saved	3/3	9/14	12
Saved %	100%	64%	41%
Times Broken	0	5	5

Tennis Scores in Osaka

• Cristina Bucsa/Monica NiculescuBucsa/Monica Niculescu – Marie Bouzkova/Maria Camila Osorio SerranoBouzkova/Maria Camila Osorio Serrano (w/o) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Angelica Moratelli/Anna SiskovaMoratelli/Anna Siskova – Nao Hibino/Makoto NinomiyaHibino/Makoto Ninomiya (6-3 7-6⁵) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Ena Shibahara/Laura SiegemundShibahara/Laura Siegemund – Sabrina Santamaria/Qianhui TangSantamaria/Qianhui Tang (2-6 6-3 10-7) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Gabriela Dabrowski/Erin RoutliffeDabrowski/Erin Routliffe – Shuko Aoyama/Eri HozumiAoyama/Eri Hozumi (6-2 6-4) – Stats, scores, rankings
• David Perez SanzPerez Sanz – Siddharth VishwakarmaVishwakarma (6-4 6-4) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Quentin RobertRobert – Michail PervolarakisPervolarakis (6-7⁷ 6-2 6-4) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Cheong-Eui KimKim – Connor FarrenFarren (6-3 6-2) – Stats, scores, rankings
• Marco BrugnerottoBrugnerotto – Soichiro MoritaniMoritani (3-6 7-6⁴ 7-5) – Stats, scores, rankings

Upcoming matches in the draw

• Eva LysLys – (0-0) – H2H and prediction
• Kimberly BirrellBirrell – (0-0) – H2H and prediction
• Suzan LamensLamens – Ana BogdanBogdan (0-0) – H2H and prediction
• Diane ParryParry – Clara TausonTauson (0-0) – H2H and prediction