Williams And Sharapova Face-Off In Aus Final

Saturday sees Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova contest the women`s singles final of the Australian Open. The two pre-tournament favourites have won six Grand Slam titles down under between them with the American picking up five Australian Opens (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010) and the Russian-born second seed grabbing one back in 2008.

The two women have met on-court 18 times in their WTA careers with the world number one seeing off 27-year-old Sharapova on 16 occasions. As a result, Williams can be backed at 2/5 with bet365 and a cluster of other bookmakers to pick up her 19th Grand Slam title. For those banking on an upset, 2/1 (also bet365) says that the match will earn Sharapova her sixth Grand Slam title victory.

This won`t be the first time the two women have met in this competition, however, with the two playing out the 2005 semi-final and the 2007 final. The younger of the famous Williams sisters got the better of her rival in both competitions, though she had to come from behind to beat the then 17-year-old Sharapova back in 2005, though the result eventually read 2-6, 7-5, 8-6. The 2007 final finished with the Russian only managing to claim three games, the match ending 6-1, 6-2.

Should you think that Williams will have to come from a set down to win once again, you can get 5/1 with sportingbet. This is something that the 64-time title winner has already done twice in this competition this year, dropping the opener against both Elina Svitolina in the third round (4-6, 6-2, 6-0) and Garbine Muguruza in the fourth round (2-6, 6-3, 6-2) before beating her respective opponents.

Another straight sets victory for the Michigan-born world number one in an Australian Open final, on the other hand, is available at 11/10 with bet365.

Something else that falls in the favour of the favourite is the fact that of their previous 18 on-court appearances together, 11 have come on hard surfaces. She holds a superior head-to-head record, winning 10 of these matches to Sharapova`s one.

The sole hard court triumph of Sharapova came in the 2004 WTA Tour Championships final in Los Angeles. Aged just 16, she fought back from losing the opener to eventually take the title 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. ladbrokes` 9/1 says that Sharapova can do the same to take her 35th career title.

With both women on top of their game, however, it is set to be a corker of a face-off. Williams, for example, has recorded a 6-0 win to secure a set three times (against Alison Van Uytvanck, Vera Zvonareva and Zvitolina) since the beginning of the competition. Indeed, Sharapova has also sealed one bagel victory, over Shuai Peng in the third round.

Betfair are offering odds of 1/50 on there not being another 6-0 set win on Saturday, whilst 13/2 with the same bookmaker says that there will.

Williams has twice stolen sets 6-0 from her fellow finalist in their previous 18 matches. The first came in the opening set of their 2012 Olympic final with the second coming in the third set of their Miami Masters final of 2013.

As well as seeing off Van Uytvanck, Vera Zvonareva, Zvitolina and Muguruza respectively in her opening four rounds, Williams has also beaten last year`s runner-up Dominika Cibulkova and Madison Keys in the tournament`s quarter-final and semi-final.

Sharapova`s Peng clash came in the fourth round of this year`s Australian Open. She had previously battled against Petra Martic, Alexandra Panova and Zarina Diyas, before taking on Eugenie Bouchard and Ekaterina Makarova in the last two tournament stages.

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29/01/2015     © Frixo 2026