French Open - Ladies

The Ladies event has a hugely competitive look to it with Serena Williams now absent from her usual dominant position at the head of the betting. It’s an exciting time for the women’s game with plenty of ladies in with a great shout of winning this year’s event. Simona Halep is the favourite, but you can still get 5/1 on her, while a further seven players are at 20/1 or less.

We’ll work through the various quarters before honing in on our outright bets given this incredible competitiveness. In the first quarter, Angelique Kerber is the top seed, with Svetlana Kuznetsova also a big danger. Kerber is 6/1 to win the section and reach the semi-finals, but with a recent retirement against Eugenie Bouchard and defeat to Anett Kontaveit, she is easily passed over. Similarly, Kuznetsova has been a little hit and miss on clay this season - reaching just the 2nd round in Stuttgart and the 3rd round in Rome. She did progress to the semi-finals in Madrid of course, but at 11/2 to win the section, I’d still look elsewhere. The one who stands out is Kiki Bertens who continues to improve on the surface. She hit the clay circuit as early as the start of April, and after mediocre events in Charleston, Bogata and Stuttgart, she reached the Quarter-Finals in Madrid and the Semi-Finals in Rome. Today she contests the final of the Nurnberg event. With clay being her favourite surface and a 2-year record of 18-6 against top 50 players on clay and 13-0 against those ranked 50-100, she looks overpriced at 9/1 to win the quarter. In the second section, defending champion Garbine Muguruza looks dangerous again, having a 13-5 record against Top 50 players on clay over the past two seasons, and a 15-6 record against Top 100 opponents. She’s 4/1 to reach the semi-finals, and that’s big enough to warrant an interest. At a bigger price, Daria Gavrilova has similarly impressive stats, and seems to be hitting form at just the right time. Having reached the quarter-finals in Rome (losing to Bertens), she has now reached the final of Strasbourg in her final warm-up event. Up to world number 25 now, Gavrilova looks overpriced at 20/1 to win the section and reach the semi-finals. The 3rd quarter looks a difficult betting heat, with two worthy favourites in Simona Halep and Elina Svitolina. Halep is the 5/2 favourite after winning Madrid and finishing runner-up in Rome - although that defeat was interestingly at the hands of Svitolina. The Ukrainian won both Istanbul and Rome, so will definitely attract her backers at 4/1 for the section, but for us this is a quarter worth avoiding. Svitolina has never been a huge clay courter, so it’s hard to evaluate whether the form is temporary or permanent. Finally in the bottom quarter, there are enough doubts about Johanna Konta on clay and Karolina Pliskova to avoid the two favourites in the market, and we’ll be happy to keep our main interest in the top parts of the draw. Kiki Bertens to win Quarter 1 at 9/1 Muguruza to win Quarter 2 at 4/1 Gavrilova to win Quarter 2 at 20/1

Muguruza to win Outright at 12/1 e/w

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