It has been a long week at the French Open but we are finally back on schedule which means the ladies final will take place at Roland Garros on Saturday afternoon and what a final it promises to be. The final is a repeat of the Wimbledon final from last year as Serena Williams takes on Garbine Muguruza.
Serena Williams
This has been an up and down title defence for Serena. She has been brilliant and ordinary over the course of the two weeks and in her last two matches she has been both in the same match but she has come through and takes her place in this final.
Serena lost just five games in the first two matches but then things got a little trickier from there on in. Kiki Mladenovic took her to a tie break in the third round and then after another dominant performance in the fourth round she was made to battle in both the quarter final and the semi-final, both against vastly inferior opponents to the one she faces in this final.
Garbine Muguruza
The Spanish ace was made to work hard in her opening match but since coming through that she has powered her way through to this final. She hasn’t dropped a set since the first round and in fact in the last five matches she has only dropped a total of 26 games in 10 sets.
The foundations for her dominance in the tournament has been her serve which has been working really well. She has maintained a high percentage of first serves in and the number of winners she has hit highlights how well she is hitting the ball so she goes into this final in sublime form.
Head to Head
These two have met on four occasions in the past including last year’s Wimbledon final and Serena holds a 3-1 lead but maybe the best form guide was their meeting here two years ago when Muguruza saw off Serena on her way to the lofty heights in the game. She won that in three sets and a repeat of that win would give her a first Grand Slam title.
Betting
Serena has started the last two matches very slowly and been able to turn things around but I’m not so sure she will be able to afford the same luxury in this match. If Muguruza gets ahead in this match we’ve seen how good a front runner she is and I’m not so sure she’ll be for catching.
There have been an awful lot of errors off the racket of Serena in recent matches and while I hate taking her on at any time let alone in a major final the evidence of what we’ve seen in the second half of this tournament suggests Garbine Muguruza has every chance. She’s played the better tennis in the second week and if that continues on Saturday she’ll be the champion.
Tips
WON – Back G.Muguruza to beat S.Williams for a 3/10 stake at 2.50 with 888sport
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