Svitolina Favourite For Copa Colsanitas Title

Elina Svitolina is still the favourite to pick up the 2015 Copa Colsanitas title after seeing off American Louisa Chirico in the first round (6-2, 6-1). The Ukrainian is the number one seed in this competition after defending champion Caroline Garcia chose to forego the tournament to instead play in the Fed Cup semi-finals. Skybet have the best price of 5/2 on Svitolina lifting this season`s WTA Bogota trophy.

Danka Kovinic awaits the world number 29 in the second round, the Montenegrin having got the better of wildcard Maria Paulina Perez Garcia in her opening encounter. That match finished 6-4, 6-1. Svitolina`s favouritism comes in spite of the 21-year-old having not got much joy from this competition in previous years. Whilst she has only appeared in one of the last eight renewals, this being in 2013, she exited in the first round at the hands of Alize Cornet on this occasion.

Svitolina will be hoping to do much better here, her best finish of the year having been recorded in her first tournament in Brisbane when reaching the semi-finals. This is her first clay competition of the year.

Next up in the betting is Monica Puig of Puerto Rico. Like the tournament favourite, Puig has not been a regular feature in this competition, failing to appear in any of the last eight renewals in Bogota. The 20-year-old tried to qualify for the tournament back in 2012 but fell to a defeat to Italian Annalisa Bona in the second round (3-6, 7-6, 3-6).

The second seed has already beaten off qualifier Cindy Burger in the opening tie this year, sealing a straight sets victory 6-3, 6-3. After two of her three seeded rivals entered into the bottom half of the draw were knocked out in the opening stage, she stands an even better chance of making her first WTA Bogota final. She could still potentially meet fifth seed Yaroslava Shvedova in the quarter-finals however.

Puig is available for backing at 5/1 at bet365 and a number of other bookmakers.

It is Shvedova who is third in the betting at the best price of 8/1 (Skybet). Older than the title favourites by seven years, the Kazakhstani has more experience than her nearest rivals and is also a one-time quarter-finalist here in Bogota. The fifth seed made it to this third stage back in 2012 when a qualifier, seeing off the likes of Estrella Cabeza Candela and Valeria Savinykh. She will also be looking to record a second win of the year over Puig after taking down the player in the second round of the Australian Open. Shvedova claimed a 6-2, 7-6 victory down under.

She did, however, look less convincing when just getting the better of Maryna Zanevska in three sets in the opening round of this competition. The 5`11" star took the first set by six games to four before losing the second on a tie-break. She only dropped two games in the deciding third set.

The last of the big titles hopes is Teliana Pereira of Brazil. Available at 10/1 with a number of bookmakers, Pereira managed to take down Italian fourth seed Francesca Schiavone in straight sets in the first round (6-1, 6-4). Whilst she may find her second round mission against qualifier Mandy Minella easy enough, she may have to contest her quarter-final tie against two-time former winner Lourdes Dominguez Lino.

Like Pereira, Dominguez Lino is a 10/1 shout to pick up the title whilst both Irina Falconi and Nicole Gibbs are the pick of the rest at bigger prices. The former can be backed at 20/1 (Numerous) with the latter up for grabs at 25/1 (ladbrokes, sportingbet).

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15/04/2015     © Frixo 2024