Halep For First Oz Semi-Final With Makarova Win

Australian Open

Tennis
Published: 26/01/2015

World number three Simona Halep is aiming to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the first time in her professional career as she looks to extend her bid to take home her first Grand Slam. Her opponent tomorrow is Ekaterina Makarova, the Russian number two having also failed to make it past the quarter-final stage of this competition in her previous attempts.

The two players have only met on-court once before, Halep ruling supreme in that tie. Held back in 2012 at New Haven, Connecticut, the now 23-year-old Russian took down the player three years her senior 6-1, 7-6. She is the 1/3 favourite (bet365) to continue her hard court supremacy over the five foot eleven Moscow-born starlet.

This may also have something to do with the fact that Halep has eased through her first four tournament ties against better opposition, winning all four matches in straight sets. Five-to-two (bet365) says that the former French Open finalist will be able to continue this trend tomorrow.

What`s more, she has also only conceded a total of 21 games, that`s an average of around five a match or just over two a set. As a result, it might be worth getting odds of 4/1 (william hill) on Makarova picking up just three games in the first set against her quarter-final rival.

Makarova has done well herself, however, having also failed to drop a set in her passage through to this competition stage. Indeed, she even has a similar games conceded to matches played record, having dropped an average of nearly six a match. This works out at nearly just under three a set.

In spite of this, however, Makarova is a 13/5 (sportingbet) chance to have her hand lifted at the end of the tie and is a 4/1 (bet365) shot to run out the straight sets victor. bet365, along with a number of other bookmakers, have also priced the 26-year-old up at 6/1 to take the match two sets to one. A Halep two sets to one win is available at 3/1 with a trio of turf accountants (boylesports, paddy Power and Totesport).

The five foot six Romanian opened her account with a 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Italy`s Karin Knapp. She committed a total of 26 unforced errors but wasn`t made to pay by her opposite number. In a similar vein, Skybet have a book on which player will make the most double faults. Halep is the favourite in this market at 2/7 whilst Makarova can be backed at 5/2.

In round two she improved to record a superb 6-2, 6-2 take down of Aussie hope Jarmila Gajdosova. The home crowd looked on despondently after the uber-aggressive third seed needed only an hour and five minutes to dispatch the 27-year-old Dallas resident.

Halep was pushed close by Bethanie Mattek-Sands of America who lost out 6-4, 7-5. The game could`ve been over earlier when last year`s quarter-finalist served for the match at 5-2 and 5-4 in the second set but the woman ranked 258 in the world fought back to before being broken on the next Halep serve.

Finally, Yanina Wickmayer equalled her best Australian Open finish by making it to the fourth round but couldn`t help but fold to the Romanian 6-4, 6-2.

Makarova got off to a confident start by seeing off Germany`s An-Sophie Mestach 6-2, 6-2 before getting the better of Italy`s Roberta Vinci 6-2, 6-4 in round two.

Unlike Halep, Makarova has previously played a seed, getting to grips with number 22 Karolina Pliskova in the tournament`s third stage. Despite her high ranking, Pliskova was her own undoing, recording a total of 28 unforced errors in losing 6-4, 6-4 after a little shy of an hour and ten minutes.

Finally, Julia Goerges of Germany fell short 6-3, 6-2 to see Makarova reach her third quarter final in the last five years.

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Any odds displayed within this article were correct at the time of publishing (26/01/2015) but are subject to change.

26/01/2015     © Frixo 2024

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