WTA Internazionali BNL d'Italia Betting: Spaniard no match for Serena

 

We've now reached the quarter-finals stage in Rome, and as the favourites begin to emerge from the pack Abelson Info preview the action for Day 5 in the Italian capital...

 

The top three seeded players at the Foro Italico have all successfully navigated their way through to the last eight, with Serena Williams the pick of the bunch in action on Thursday.

 

The American world number one has hardly broken sweat thus far, as she looks to follow up her success in Madrid with another title on the clay ahead of the French Open.

 

Having breezed past Laura Robson in the second round, dropping just four games, Williams was even more clinical in her destruction of Dominika Cibulkova. She lost just one game to the Slovakian and wrapped up proceedings in just 66 minutes.

 

She takes on Carla Suarez Navarro in the quarters, hoping to surpass her longest ever winning streak record which stands at 21, and is predictably a strong favourite to prevail.

 

The Spaniard has already dispatched of 11th seed Nadia Petrova in her opening match and is enjoying an extended week's action in the Eternal City. Unfortunately it is highly unlikely her run will continue past Thursday.

 

Serbian ace Jelena Jankovic remains in the hunt for her third title in Rome, having overcome fifth seed Na Li in a real battle in the last round.

 

She will hope to avoid feeling any ill-effects of a marathon match which lasted almost three hours when she takes on qualifier Simona Halep. The Romanian has been the biggest surprise of the tournament thus far, beating world number four Agnieszka Radwanska in the second round before seeing off Roberta Vinci last time out.

 

It is difficult to avoid the temptation of backing the underdog, but value may also be had in this one going three sets, a scenario the duo have found themselves in their two meetings previous.

 

The other side of the draw appears somewhat of a formality when looking at head-to-head records, as the number two and three seeds, Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka respectively, look set to meet in the semi-finals.

 

Azarenka looked in good form in her comfortable win over Julia Goerges in the second round, while her last match was curtailed prematurely following the retirement of Ayumi Morita.

 

Nevertheless, she faces Sam Stosur in the last eight, and despite the Australian's impressive third round win over Petra Kvitova, she has a horrendous history against the Belarusian.

 

Stosur has lost all seven of their previous clashes, taking her opponent the distance just once, most recently at the US Open last year. While they have yet to meet on clay, it is difficult to see anything but an Azarenka win.

 

Meanwhile, Sharapova has yet to be really tested in the tournament, breezing past her two opponents and dropping just a couple of games here or there.

 

In what will arguably be the most exciting game of the day, particularly for the home crowd, she takes on the last standing Italian in the draw in Sara Errani. However, expect a few broken Italian hearts as Errani has failed to win a solitary set in any of their four meetings.

 

Recommended Bets:

Back three sets in Halep-Jankovic @ 2.36

Back Jankovic to beat Halep @ 1.75

Back Sharapova to beat Errani 2-0 @ 1.67

 

Bet HERE

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