Australian Open Betting / Ben Caudell / 29 January 2010 /

Serena is going for a 12th Grand Slam but Justine is playing without fear. Will it be the reigning champion or the comeback queen who is victorious in Melbourne on Saturday morning? Ben Caudell selects the best bets.

Serena Williams (USA) v Justine Henin (BEL)

This is the women's final everyone wanted.

Serena Williams the number one ranked player in the world and four time Australian Open champion sets her sights on breaking a habit of only winning in odd years, and has a shot at a 12th Grand Slam title. In her way stands the former number one and seven time Grand Slam champion Justine Henin, who has miracoulsly come back from retirement and is in such a good vain of form, she has sent shockwaves throughout the women's game.

Playing without fear of losing, and with a more prominent attacking game, Henin has nothing to lose and all to gain against a player she has played 13 times. In a style reminiscent of Kim Clijsters comeback win at last year's U.S Open, the Belgian win the Australian Open?

Serena Williams leads their head-to-head series 7-6. They have played on hard courts five times with Serena winning four and Henin just one but I don't think we should read too much into their head-to-heads because of Henin's retirement and the fact they haven't played since 2008. Instead, we need to digest the form that these two have shown in the lead up to this great finale.

Serena started the tournament with a bang by demolishing Urszula Radwanska, Petra Kvitova, Carla Suarez Navarro and Samantha Stosur without dropping a single service game. She then fought back from a set down and 4-0 against the promising Belarusian youngster, Victoria Azarenka, showing guile and determination to never give up. Her semi-final against Na Li was a close affair winning in two tie-break sets but she never really looked threatened.

Justine Henin has had a slightly tougher draw, losing sets against Yanina Wickmayer, and Alisa Kleybanova as well as two tough matches against strong opponents in Elena Dementieva and Nadia Petrova. Her semi-final match versus Jie Zheng was a brief affair winning 6-1 6-0 in only 51 minutes.

I believe that although Henin has played more games than Serena at this event, the American will be slightly more fatigued, having had two doubles matches and a singles match in the last two days. Henin will be well rested and raring to go; she will have a psychological advantage over Serena with less pressure on her. This is an evenly priced match that could go either way but I will be putting my money on yet another fairy tale story. I'm backing Henin to emulate Clijsters and lift a Grand Slam title having come out of retirement.

Selection: Back Justine Henin @ [2.12] to win match
Back Henin 2-0 @ [3.7]

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