Halep injury throws new curveball into wide-open French Open
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Simona Halep says it’s ’50-50’ whether or not she’ll be fit in time for the French Open, and her likely omission leaves the betting wide-open.
The Romanian is still the 4/1 market favourite to prevail at Roland Garros, but suffered an ankle ligament injury in the Rome final on Sunday.
Even if Halep does recover in time, it’s hardly ideal preparation.
And with Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova also absent – for vastly varying reasons – it’s time to look further down the odds.
As we highlighted previously, Elina Svitolina is the form contender in the WTA right now.
The Ukrainian is 8/1 having been 66/1 to one at the start of the season.
And she’ll quickly shorten again should Halep withdraw from the tournament.
Reigning champion Garbine Muguruza is next up at 9/1, but the Venezuelan retired injured mid-way through Rome semi-final with Svitolina.
In truth, the clay court season hasn’t proved too successful for anyone this year.
That includes Johanna Konta, and our traders don’t rate the Brit’s chances too much at 22/1.
So while we’re fairly sure this is Svitolina’s tournament to lose, Kristina Mladenovic is be the each-way punt at 14s.
The Frenchwoman reached both the final in Madrid and Stuttgart on the clay, and claimed the Indian Wells title earlier this year too.
And another final appearance in Acapulco in February shows that the 24-year-old has been in fine form for a while now.
A narrow first round exit to Julia Goerges in Rome wasn’t ideal, but Mladenovic has beaten Sharapova, Caroline Wozniacki, Halep and world number one Angelique Kerber in 2017.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
