French Open Betting / Editor / 05 June 2007 /

For once this fortnight it's ladies first as the women's singles quarter-finals take centre stage on Day 10 of the French Open at Roland Garros.

In fact it's not just ladies' day, it's finals day in a manner of speaking because Belgium's two-time defending champion and three-time winner Justine Henin meets 2002 champion and eighth seeded American Serena Williams in the match many fans would have love to have seen in Saturday's final.

Central and Eastern Europe dominate quarter-finals day with three Russians, two Serbians and a Czech player completing the eight players in action

But world number one Henin is going to take some beating especially if she gets past Williams in the second match on Court Philippe Chatrier today. Their most recent clash was in the final in Miami in April when Williams won 0-6 7-5 6-3 but Henin is on an 18-match winning streak at Roland Garros.

The last person to beat Henin was Russia's 21-year-old third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, who won a three set semi-final at the Berlin Open in mid-May.
And she starts the action today when she faces Serbian seventh seed Ana Ivanovic, the 19-year-old who beat her in the Berlin final - their only meeting on clay - to take a 2-1 lead in head to heads since 2005.

The rise of Serbian tennis in the last 18 months - with Novak Djokovic through to the last eight in the men's event - is one of the fairytale success stories of the sport.

Ivanovic is trading at 2.8 with Betfair to reach the semi-finals and you can go for a Betfair double of fourth seed Jelena Jankovic joining her at odds of 1.37 as she faces 18-year-old Czech star Nicole Vaidisova, the sixth seed.
Jankovic is likely to go through to face Henin or Williams even though she trails 4-2 in head to heads with the Czech teenager.

But Henin against Williams is hard to call even though the American, eight times a Grand Slam winner to Henin's five, leads 6-3 in head to heads. Betfair offer 2.62 on Williams and 1.61 on Henin to win.
The other quarter-final sees ninth seed Anna Chakvetadze take on her Russian rival Maria Sharapova - and a lot will depend on how well the second seed has recovered from her 9-7 third-set nailbiter against Patty Schnyder on Sunday.

Sharapova has won all three of their meetings but she has come to Paris with just one tournament under her belt after damaging a shoulder in March. The two 20-year-olds met in the Australian quarter-finals when Sharapova won and went on to reach the final before being crushed by Williams.

All that can be certain is that there will definitely be a Russian in the semi-finals after this battle with Sharapova trading at 1.5 to grunt her way to victory.

While all four women's quarter-finals take place today, only two of the men's matches are on the schedule.
Roger Federer is running nicely into form after the way he demolished Mikhail Youzhny in the fourth round to equal John McEnroe's 1984 record of 11 consecutive Grand Slam wins without dropping a set.

In beating Youzhny he took their head to heads to 10-0. Today he faces ninth seed Tommy Robredo of Spain and Betfair are offering 1.62 that he will win again in straight sets, especially as he leads Robredo 7-0 and has only dropped one set to him back in 2002 in Vienna.
He beat Robredo in straight sets in the Australian Open at the same stage and won that title without dropping a set. Neither player has dropped a set in their first four matches in Paris.

If Federer prevails, he will then meet the winner of the other quarter-final between Nikolay Davydenko, the fourth-seeded Russian, and the 19th seeded Argentine Guillermo Canas.
Of course, that 19th seeding doesn't reflect Canas's danger. Federer will be hoping Davydenko wins because Canas is the man who beat him twice in two weeks at Indian Wells and Miami earlier this year. But Canas leads 3-1 in head to heads against the world No 4.

The other two quarter-finals tomorrow (Wednesday) see Russian Igor Andreev - the only unseeded man left - take on sixth seed Djokovic while second seed and double champion Rafael Nadal meets 1998 champion Carlos Moya, the 23rd seed.

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