Roland Garros Womens' Semi-Finals

I said at the end of yesterday's blog to keep an eye on the four favourites on Wednesday and back them if they went down a set or a break as I was confident each would progress. As it transpired, this is exactly what happened when Maria Sharapova traded @ 2.20 after the loss of the first set to Jelena Jankovic on a 6-0 scoreline. I backed Sharapova at that stage and she was always in the lead from there on out. After that win, I used the profits to back Nadal -7.5 games against Wawrinka @ 2.06 on the exchanges. Nadal eventually ran out a 6-2 6-3 6-1 winner and so rounded off another very very good day!

The other matches on Wednesday saw Vika Azarenka overcome the women's number one in the looks department - Maria Kirilenko while on the men's side Novak Djokovic overcame Tommy Haas in straights as I said yesterday.

So, this brings us on to Thursday of week two at Roland Garros. The four remaining men will have their feet up for the day, while the women take centre stage and play for the right to be in Saturday's final. They are the four best women in the draw and it is going to be a good day's tennis. The first semi final sees Serena Williams come up against Sara Errani. Errani is at her best on clay, while Serena is at her worst, but even Serena at her worst should have too much for Errani and I can't see anything but a Serena win. The handicap is +6.5 games for Errani but, even though I think she will cover that, I am not completely confident and so won't be backing it. Semi final number two is where my interest lies and I think Maria Sharapova, the defending champion here, represents good value @ 1.86 to beat Vika Azarenka. Sharapova actually trails their head to head 5-7 but I think on clay she has the edge over Azarenka. This will be a screech-fest with the decibel levels of a jumbo jet, but I think Sharapova has the necessary tools to take down Vika on this surface. She hits a bigger ball and serves better too. I will back Sharapova, almost certainly in three sets. I will also recommend total sets over 2.5 with PP @ 5/4 as I am certain this one will go the distance.

Tomorrow I will preview the men's semis. I am convinced Ferrer will beat Tsonga, but I don't know about the other one yet.... I need a day to think about it!

Thanks for reading. Over and out :)