After what has been a quite remarkable women’s US Open covered in fantastic stories we are left with a clash between two Americans who are competing in their first Grand Slam final to determine the champion.
Everywhere we have looked in the tournament there have been shocks and surprises, twists and turns and that is unlikely to change inside the Arthur Ashe Stadium when Madison Keys takes on Sloane Stephens for the title on Saturday evening.
Day 12 Recap
The two men’s semi-finals were intriguing for spells and both were won in four sets by Kevin Anderson and Rafael Nadal and they will meet in the men’s final on Sunday. That means we picked up a winner and a loser on the day for a small profit.
Madison Keys
After some really tough and physical battles in the early stages of this tournament Madison Keys will have been pleased to have a much easier time of it in the semi-finals. She played well in that match but the margin of victory was helped massively by her opponent Coco Vandeweghe having an absolute shocker.
With that in mind I guess it is hard to judge her credentials heading into this final. That said we saw how well she was hitting the ball in her epic wins over Elena Vesnina and Elina Svitolina earlier in the competition. We also saw her heart and how she is prepared to run down every ball and do what it takes to come through.
Sloane Stephens
In a tournament full of storylines and in some cases fairy tales the biggest one of the lot has to be Sloane Stephens. Eight weeks ago she was ranked outside the top 950 in the world rankings and here she is in a Grand Slam final and likely to move into the top 30 and even higher should she come out on top here.
Stephens has been three sets in four out of her six matches at this tournament. She has come out in tight deciding sets and she has won more comfortable ones. She has won matches when things have been going against her too such as the semi-final when she was bagelled in the second set only to bounce back and win a decider.
Head to Head
This will be just the second meeting of these two. Their first came in 2015 which was won by Stephens in straight sets. Both women have suffered key injuries since then but have battled hard to make it back to the pinnacle of their career.
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Betting
I must admit I thought Sloane Stephens’ race was run twice in the semi-final. I thought it would come to an end before that match started and once she had lost the second set 6-0 I was certain that was it for her but she has shown amazing spirit and efforts to hang in matches. Some of her defence against Venus Williams was insane.
Truth be told I don’t know if Stephens will win this final. In fact I don’t think she will but one thing I am much more certain of is I don’t think she will go down without a fight if she does go down. I think we saw earlier in the tournament the same can be said of Madison Keys.
There will be nerves in this final. There will be twists and turns aplenty too. Usually this is not a final which goes three sets. Only three of the last 21 have gone the distance but this may buck the trend. Whether it does or it doesn’t we’ve seen enough fight from Stephens to suggest she can ride out the 3.5 game start that she receives.
Tips
WON – Back S.Stephens (+3.5 games) to beat M.Keys for a 4/10 stake at 1.95 with LeoVegas
Back her here:
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