We’re now down to the final four in both the men’s and women’s draws in the US Open and on Thursday we will find out the two ladies who will battle it out in Saturday’s final.
Wednesday saw some excellent tennis in the women’s event coupled with two one sided quarter finals in the men’s competition. Both Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka bit the dust on Wednesday as the underdogs barked loud.
Both ladies semi-finals will be played in the night session on Thursday with a series of doubles matches making up the day session. It is handy that there is no singles action in the day time as the forecast is pretty foul.
The first semi-final sees Serena Williams continuing her pursuit of the calendar Grand Slam when she takes on the Italian player Roberta Vinci. Simona Halep takes on Flavia Pennetta in the second match of the night.
Serena begins the night as a 1/12 favourite and it is hard to argue with that. The only question that needs to be answered really is how easily will she win? The pressure is mounting on the world number one as she chases a slice of history so Vinci might hang around longer than she normally would do. Even then I can’t see anything but a Serena straight sets win so I can’t get a betting feel for the game.
The second match promises to be an absolute belter. Flavia Pennetta seems to love New York. Her best Grand Slam performances seem to be saved for Flushing Meadows and she showed excellent poise and more than enough quality and fighting spirit to see off a runaway train in the form of Petra Kvitova in the previous round.
Pennetta wasn’t the only person who had to pull out all the stops in the quarter final. Simona Halep had to dig deep and produce her very best as well in her win over Victoria Azarenka so both ladies know they have plenty in them going into this semi-final.
Pennetta leads the head to head between the two 3-1. Halep won the most recent meeting in Miami earlier in the year but Pennetta won when the two met here in 2013 so they both have good memories to draw on.
Given that I’m still not yet convinced Halep is fully fit and if she isn’t two matches in two nights will be tough work then I’m going to side with the Italian on the handicap here. In fairness were it not for the rain then Halep might be on her way home by now. I’m not sure whether Pennetta will send the Romanian packing but she can win a set and that will be enough to cover a 4.5 game handicap.
Back F.Pennetta (+4.5 games) to beat S.Halep for a 4/10 stake at 1.85 with Betway
