French Open Women's Final Tennis Betting

This Saturday sees the final day’s action for the ladies at Roland Garros as Francesca Schiavone takes on Samantha Stosur in a surprise final. Who will emerge with their first Grand Slam victory? BetRepublic.com previews the action here.

Francesca Schiavone v Samantha Stosur Tennis Betting:

Both of these players have been the surprise packages of the tournament, with Schiavone becoming the first Italian to reach a Grand Slam semi final, and now final, in the Open era while Stosur has beaten four time winner Justine Henin and world number one Serena Williams on route to the final. PaddyPower.com have made Stosur a 2/9 favourite to claim the title ahead of 13/4 for Schiavone, mainly down to whom she has beaten and the fact that she is unbeaten against Schiavone since 2005. Will that run continue or will Schiavone become the first Italian to win a Grand Slam?

In her last three matches Stosur has had to overcome four time winner Justine Henin in round four, world number one Serena Williams in the Quarter Finals and the fourth seed, and my pre-tournament favourite for the title, Jelena Jankovic in the Semis. Stosur took three sets to get past both Henin and Serena, but she completely blew Jankovic away with a 6-1, 6-2 win to book her place in her first ever Grand Slam final. Can she continue in this form to claim the 2010 French Open title?

Schiavone has beaten seeded players in her last four matches, with three of those matches being against players seeded above her. The seventeenth seed defeated Na Li (11) in round three, Maria Kirilenko (30) in the fourth round, Caroline Wozniacki (3) in the Quarter Finals and Elena Dementieva (5) in the last four.

She won the first three of those matches in straight sets with the semi final match against Dementieva going on for just one set as Dementieva retired with a calf injury after losing the set 7-6. In fact, apart from the first set of her first match, Schiavone has not dropped a set on her run to the final. Can she keep that going and make history as the first Italian to win a Grand Slam in the Open era?

These two players have met on five previous occasions and Stosur leads the scorecard 4-1. The Australian has won the last four matches and Schiavone’s only win came in 2005. Of their five previous matches two have been on clay and Stosur has won both of these in straight sets, including beating Schiavone in the first round of the 2009 French Open. However, I feel that things will be different this time around with both players in highly confident moods after their exceptional runs to this point. Who will win though?

Despite Schiavone having lost just one set in six matches at Roland Garros this year I feel that Stosur has had the more difficult run in terms of matches, if not opponents, and she has had to dig deeper to get the results and this will have her better prepared for whatever may happen in the final. I don’t expect Schiavone to make it easy for her though, so my money is on a 2-1 Stosur win at odds of 16/5 with William Hill.

BetRepublic.com Recommends Tennis Betting Tips:

• Back Samantha Stosur to win the French Open by beat Francesca Schiavone 2-1 @ 16/5