French Open women’s quarter-finals: Serena and Bertens to come through battles

Jamie Clark, Sports Editor | June 1, 2016

2016 French Open

• Women’s Singles Quarter-finals
• Thursday, June 2nd
• Matches scheduled: From 14:00 BST
• Roland Garros, Paris
• Live on ITV4 and Eurosport

Serena Williams v Yulia Punitseva

Reigning French Open women’s singles champion Serena Williams is now a commanding 4/6 favourite with Coral to retain her title at Roland Garros, and faces Kazakhstan’s Yulia Punitseva in the last eight.

With all-time Grand Slam great Serena winning both their previous head-to-heads in straight sets, Williams is an overwhelming odds-on 1/10 to take her match and better at 1/3 to replicate a 2-0 scoreline.

Serena has steamrollered her way through the Paris opposition, but opponent Punitseva has also reached this point without dropping a set, eliminating Laura Robson and seeds Andrea Petkovic and Carla Suarez Navarro on the way.

As a sizeable 6/1 outsider to dethrone Williams, though, Punitseva only thinks she can win, while Serena knows it. The tiebreak betting is the most appealing thing about this encounter; with odds of 7/2 saying there shall be one in the match, 7/1 for the first set to go the distance.

Perhaps the most incredible bet is a fantastic 14/1 price for Serena to win the opener 7-6, with Punitseva managing to force tiebreaks in both those career meetings.