Events / Editor / 09 February 2008 /

The final of the Gaz De France previewed on Betfair

Top seed Anna Chakvetadze takes on Agnes Szavay in the final of the Open Gaz De France in Paris tomorrow lunchtime and if the semi-finals are anything to go by, we could be in for a thriller.

Szavay is a player very much on the upgrade and she is particularly effective on hard courts, as she highlighted during her run to the quarters of the US Open in September.

She found Svetlana Kuznetsova too good that day, although much of that can be put down to nerves in her first Grand Slam quarter-final and had she managed to overcome the Russian, Szavay would have taken on Chakvetadze, who had one of her occasional temperament issues in defeat to Kuznetsova in the semi's.

The 19-year-old Hungarian had a career year last year and broke into the top 20 after that run in the US, but she has made a slow start to 2008, losing in the first round in Sydney to Yuliana Fedak and to Ekaterina Makarova in the Australian Open, both of whom are ranked outside the top 100.

She appears to be putting those losses behind her this week though and has defeated the number two seed Daniela Hantuchova and the number four seed Elena Dementieva en route to the final.

The defeat of Hantuchova was Szavay's second over the world number eight from two attempts and the impressive victory over Dementieva, after losing the second set 6-1 in her first career meeting with the Russian world number 13, showed that she knows how to take out the big names when it counts.

Chakvetadze has endured a similarly slow start to the year and also lost in the first round in Sydney, before launching her assault on the Australian Open, where she was ranked the number six seed.

After a first round bye, she defeated a qualifier before disappointingly bowing out at the third round stage in three sets to Maria Kirilenko - losing 6-1, 6-2 after taking the first on a breaker.

The world number seven has defeated three French players on her way to the title match, the last of these being a topsy-turvy encounter with Marion Bartoli in the semi's.

The Russian dropped the first set 6-2, but stormed back to take it 6-2 and 6-0 and is looking for the seventh singles title of her career, compared to her opponent who is seeking her third singles crown.

Tomorrow's finalists have met once before and that was in the round of 64 of last year's French Open. Chakvetadze emerged victorious that day in three tight sets and another close encounter in Paris could be the call on Sunday.

Chakvetadze looks the solid choice at around [1.5] outright, now that she's had a few matches under her belt and these are the kind of titles that the Russian was mopping up last year.

However, she rarely does things the easy way, so the value may lie in a 2-1 Chakvetadze success at around [3.85].

The Chakvetadze temperament is always likely to let her down, although it tends to be when it matters most in Grand Slams that it is most liable to rear it's head, but you can never quite tell with the highly strung 20-year-old, therefore a interest in the improving Szavay might turn out to be value at 2.22 if the Chak histrionics strike.

'.$sign_up['title'].'

'; } } ?>

:

:

:

?

: