Serena Williams is back competing in Grand Slam events. After winning the 2017 Australian Open, the future Hall of Famer dealt with pregnancy thus needing time to be away from the court. Will she be able to win her first Grand Slam match in over a year this Sunday against Karolina Pliskova? Or will Czech star humble the legend? At press, Serena Williams is favored (-210) to advance to the next round.
Pliskova is looking to make it further this time around at the French Open after having her breakout Roland Garros campaign last year when she reached the semifinals round. Pliskova was stopped last year in the tournament by Simona Halep, though the latter had to win the match in three sets. This time around, Pliskova will face a legend in the form of Williams, whom he had met before – and even beaten once, albeit on a hard surface, back in the 2016 semifinals round of the US Open. Pliskova enters the 2018 French Open on the heels of two-straight losses – both on a clay court – though she still owns a 4-2 record in clay matches this year. Earlier this month, Pliskova flashed some might on the surface when she beat Sloane Stephens and Simona Halep in consecutive fashion to reach the finals of the Madrid Open before losing to Petra Kvitova in the championship showdown. Pliskova, 26, is younger than Williams by 10 years.
Betting on Serena Williams (-210)
It’s been a while since Williams competed in a Grand Slam event. The last such tournament she found himself competing in was the 2017 Australian open which she topped. Since then, she’s played in a total of just four tour matches after going through pregnancy. As a result, Williams has dropped all the way down into the 453rd place in the world rankings. Still, a player with a pedigree like her will always be favored against someone like Pliskova. In her most recent outing, Williams was humbled by Naomi Osaka in the first round of the Miami Open in March. Prior to that, she lost to her sister, Venus, in the third round of the Paribas Open also in March. Williams appears to need just some more warm up to get her rhythm back. After all, she went 11-1 in clay court matches in 2016 before sitting out most of 2017. She’s defeated Pliskova once during the round of 16 of the Stanford Classic in 2014. Williams is a three-time French Open champion.
