Time to get serious at the French Open as Halep faces Svitolina
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With the early rounds out of the way, it’s crunch time at the French Open and there’s a cracking quarter-final tie in store in the Women’s contest.
Tournament favourite Simona Halep will take on the WTA’s form star in Elina Svitolina.
The pair both progressed to the last eight on Monday – but in rather contrasting fashion.
Romanian ace Halep cruised past seasoned regular Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1 6-1 in 60 minutes, but Svitolina had to come from 5-2 down in the third set to see off qualifier Petra Martic.
With only a handful of top-ten seeded players remaining, there’s a good chance this year’s winner will come from this quarter-final tie.
Halep is 11/8 favourite to win her first Slam title, with Ukrainian Svitolina joint-second at 5/1 in the outright betting.
But as far as the match prices go, Halep is odds-on at 2/5.
That leaves Svitolina at 2/1, a price we reckon will prove popular.
The pick of the bunch however, is over 2.5 sets at 11/8.
Three sets were required for the duo’s most recent meeting, when Svitolina prevailed 4-6 7-5 6-1 a fortnight ago to win the Rome Masters – her fourth title of the year.
Halep has won just one tournament in 2017, but her current form reads an excellent 14-1.
In truth, this could easily have been the final, had the drawn been kinder.
World number three Karolina Pliskova remains a potential semi-final opponent, while Caroline Wozniacki or home favourite Kristina Mladenovic may await in the showpiece this weekend.
But for both Halep and Svitolina, the hardest hurdle to overcome if they are to win this year’s French Open has already arrived.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
