Ivanovic – Safarova

Ana Ivanovic and Lucie Safarova will square off Thursday in a somewhat surprising Roland Garros 2015 women’s semifinal.

Ana played some good tennis this week and she`s in the semis for the first time since her title run in 2008. However, I wasn`t particularly impressed with the Serbian and one could argue that she wouldn`t have made it this far if she had a tougher draw. Ivanovic’s biggest win came against Makarova, who didn`t look particularly dangerous, but Ana still lost a set there. She also lost sets to Doi and Shvedova. Ivanovic is on the back of a solid 6-3 6-2 win over Svitolina, but her opponent didn’t exactly play a great match.

Safarova had a much tougher draw than Ana, but she handled it superbly – not losing a single set so far despite meeting the likes of Lisicki, Sharapova and a red hot Muguruza. The Czech player powered her way trough the draw, she`s hitting the ball hard, remained consistent. She served very well and surely she will feel that she can even win the tournament after defeating the 2nd seed Sharapova in two sets in the 4th round and backing that up with another straight sets win against in form Muguruza.

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Safarova leads the Head 2 Head 5-3 (1-1 on clay), but Ivanovic won the last meetings between the two. I can see Safarova being able to often outpower Ivanovic, who did look a little tentative in some of here matches in Paris. She`s not the best defender either, so the Serbian might find it difficult to keep position when Safarova starts hitting hard on these pretty fast courts at Roland Garros.

The odds on a Safarova win are dropping and I am not surprised at all. She`s a massive favorite here as far as I`m concerned – she`s playing better, much better than Ana, she proved herself against top and in form players and she also has the Head 2 Head advantage. Women’s tennis can always be a little bit tricky, but it really shouldn`t be the case here – I can’t see how Ana could escape with the win, Safarova is playing to good and she`s a consistent player once she gets on a roll, so not too much danger of a collapse. Look for the Czech player to continue the good run, while Ivanovic will struggle to find solutions and will be much more vulnerable on serve than her opponent.

There`s also the fact that it might be a bit windy come game time (forecast says about 10-11 km/h compared to 7-8 km/h on Wednesday), so that will help the player with a better serve and more power – which is Lucie. All in all my betting tip on this one is Safarova to win and I`ll go with high stakes on the bet. Prediction: Lucie Safarova – Ana Ivanovic 6-4 7-6.

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Pick: Safarova
Odds: 1.83 @ Bwin
Stake: 9
Possible profit: 7.47
Event date: 4 June