Williams Plays Keys In All-American Quarter-Final

The USA will have at least one representative in the semi-final of the Australian Open as countrywomen Venus Williams and Madison Keys face off for the only the second time in tomorrow`s quarter-final (00:00). This appearance marks something of a breakthrough for both players, Keys featuring in her first ever Grand Slam quarter-final and Williams playing in her first for over five years.

Williams, who is 15 years Keys` senior, is expected to be able to draw upon her years of experience and put the Illinois girl to the sword with the 35-year-old available to be backed at 8/13 with bet365. Despite being one of the key players to watch for some time now, her opponent isn`t fancied to make it through to her first Grand Slam semi-final, the same bookmaker offering odds of 5/4 on a win for the teenager.

In the two women`s only previous WTA clash, the elder of the Williams siblings came out on top in a match at the 2013 Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina. Also meeting in the last eight of this competition, Venus picked up a straight sets victory, the scorecard reading 6-4, 6-4 to the Californian. That competition takes place on a clay court surface meaning that this will be the pair`s first match-up on hard.

Should you think that history will repeat itself and the seven-time Grand Slam winner will record another straight sets victory over her compatriot, you can get a price of 13/8 at bet365. The same bookmaker are providing a price of 5/2 on Keys winning without dropping a set.

This wouldn`t be a remarkable occurrence with the one-time WTA title winner having picked up three straight set win in her four games in this year`s competition. Keys was only forced to play a third set in the second round of the tournament when Australian Casey Dellacqua took the opener 6-2. Twenty-nine-year-old Dellacqua, the 26 seed, only managed to win another two games however, as Keys took the match 2-6, 6-1, 6-1.

Both Betvictor and sportingbet have odds on a similar Keys win after losing the first set at 7/1 whilst Williams to drop the first set but still have her hand raised at the end of the clash is 5/1 with a trio of bookmakers (Betvictor, ladbrokes, william hill).

Indeed, 2003 Australian Open runner-up Williams dropped her third round opener 6-4 against Italy`s Camila Giorgi.

Things could have got a whole lot worse however as the Italian was serving for a match point with the second set on 5-4. Luckily for the American she managed to turn things around, succeeding in taking the set thanks to a tie-break before finishing off her opponent with ease, only dropping one game in the final set.

Williams also needed three sets to knock out sixth seed Agnieszka Radwanska last time out. The six foot one star bagged the first set 6-3 before being pegged back 6-2 in the second. Once again the more experienced player upped her performance in the final set as she took this by six games to one for the second match in succession.

Bet365 are offering odds of 4/7 on the victor being crowned after less than 2.5 sets tomorrow. In contrast, the same bookmaker have odds of 5/4 on their being more than 2/5 being contested.

Aside from Giorgi and Radwanska, the 46-time WTA tournament champion also defeated Maria Torro-Flor 6-2, 6-2 (first round) and Lauren Davis 6-2, 6-3 (second round) to progress to this stage.

Other than her performance against Dellacqua in round two, Keys has also seen off Lesia Tsurenko 6-3, 7-5 (round one), fourth seed Petra Kvitova 6-4, 7-5 (round three) and Madison Brengle 6-2, 6-4 (round four).

Go To bet365

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27/01/2015     © Frixo 2024