Don’t miss our two top tennis plays for this Thursday’s action in Paris with the WTA French Open semi-finals taking place. Bookmakers Review breaks down the fixtures below and lists the best available odds from green listed bookmakers.
Ostapenko vs. Bacsinszky
Against all expectations, Jelena Ostapenko is just one win away from reaching the Roland Garros final. After her incredible victory over Caroline Wozniacki in the previous round, Ostapenko became the youngest player to reach the semi-finals in Paris since Ana Ivanovic in 2007. Despite firing 38 winners against Wozniacki in the quarterfinals, Ostapenko also committed 50 unforced errors on that match.
Timea Bacsinszky continues her brilliant run in Roland Garros. With an impressive 87.50% winning record in Paris since 2015, Bacsinszky is for the second time in the French Open semi-finals. Taking a look now at Timea’s numbers in Paris, the highlight goes to her return to serve with the Swiss losing only 35.60% of her opponents’ service games throughout the tournament.
This should be a very interesting contest with Ostapenko’s firepower contrasting with Timea’s remarkable defense. Despite Jelena’s brilliant run, Bacsinszky should be too strong for the 19-year-old Latvian. With this in mind, Timea is the clear favourite to win this match at 67/100 at Pinnacle while Ostapenko is available at 13/10 at William Hill.
Halep vs. Pliskova
The 2014 French Open runner-up – Simona Halep – booked a place in the semi-finals after a remarkable comeback from a set and 1 – 5 down against Elina Svitolina. With a brilliant 19 – 2 record on the 2017 European clay-court season, Halep is the undeniable favourite to lift the trophy in Paris. Despite facing one of the best defenders in the game, Halep ended the match against Svitolina with a terrific 0.96 winners / unforced errors ratio.
Playing on the big stages brings the best out of Karolina Pliskova. Since the 2016 US Open, Pliskova won 88.24% of the matches on Grand Slam events. Despite her successful run in Paris, Karolina couldn’t have asked for an easier draw in Paris. Besides not facing a single player from the top 25, the Czech only played against one player from the top 60 on her path into the semi-finals.
From all the players on the WTA Tour, Halep is without any doubt one of the worst match-ups for Pliskova. For that reason, it’s not surprising to see Simona as the undeniable favourite at 33/100 at Bet365 while BetVictor offers 3/1 for Karolina’s victory. Due to the low price on Halep’s moneyline, our advice is to place a bet on her -1.5 Set Handicap at 93/100 at Pinnacle.
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