Serena Williams moved to within a victory of her 20th Grand Slam singles title after edging past Timea Bacsinszky in the 2015 French Open semifinals on Thursday. Pulling off that amazing feat won’t be easy, though, as standing in her way in the final is the red-hot Lucie Safarova who hasn’t lost a set in this year’s tournament.
Who will emerge victorious in this blockbuster showdown? Read on below for an in-depth breakdown of this women’s final. You can check out the men’s side of the draw with our semifinal previews of Djokovic vs. Murray and Wawrinka vs. Tsonga.
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Serena Williams vs. Lucie Safarova Betting Preview
Serena Williams’ bid for a third French Open title remains right on track after a tough 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory over Timea Bacsinszky in the semifinals on Thursday. The top seed needed one hour and 54 minutes to defeat her Swiss counterpart as she booked a place in the final of Roland Garros for the third time in her career.
[sc:Other240banner ]We can rank this performance of Williams as one of her best as she managed to pull off the win even though she was suffering deeply from the flu. Trailing 6-4, 3-2 at one point, Williams displayed the heart of a champion as she won the last 10 games to seal the improbable victory.
This was Williams’ fourth match of the tournament in which she dropped the first set. Williams, however, has proven time and again, especially in Grand Slam tournaments, that she can comeback from such deficits. She has won 32 Grand Slam matches in which she dropped the first set, eight more than any other active player.
With the victory, Williams improved to 24-3 in Grand Slam semifinal matches. Up next for Williams is a final showdown with Lucie Safarova. The 33-year-old has fared extremely well in her past meetings with Safarova, winning all of their eight previous matches. Williams is 2-0 against Safarova on the slow surface.
Williams will take comfort from the fact that she destroyed Safarova in straight sets in those two clay-court matches. For Williams to continue her dominance of Safarova, she needs to continue her excellent return play. She won 46% of her receiving points against Bacsinszky with Williams converting five of her eight break point opportunities.
Lucie Safarova reached her first ever Grand Slam final with a heart-stopping 7-5, 7-5 victory over seventh-seed Ana Ivanovic. It was a terrific performance from Safarova who will be aiming to become the first Czech player to win the Suzanne Lenglen trophy since Hana Mandlikova back in 1981.
Achieving that dream will be a tall task, however, as standing in her way in the final is the seemingly indestructible Serena Williams. Not even a bad case of the flu could stop the 19-time Grand Slam champion from reaching her 28th career Grand Slam final.
Facing the all-time great will not faze Safarova one bit, though, as she is playing the best tennis of her life right now. Incredibly, she hasn’t dropped a single set in this entire tournament. She’s averaging a whopping 31.2 winners per match in this event.
For Safarova to record the giant upset, she needs to limit her mistakes. She committed a tournament-high 31 unforced errors in her semifinal match against Ivanovic. That simply won’t do against a world-class player like Williams who’s averaging 34.3 winners in this tournament. The one thing going for Safarova, though, is her excellent serve. She put into play 65% of her first serves against Ivanovic, her highest clip in this year’s tournament. She won 69% of those points on Thursday.
Even though Safarova is 0-8 against Williams, she can take heart in the fact that she pushed Williams to the brink in their last meeting. She suffered a tough three-set defeat to Williams in their last encounter at Beijing last year. She lost, 6-1, 1-6, 6-2 in that round of 16 matchup.
Safarova is 8-2 in her last 10 matches.
Writer’s Prediction
Williams (-350) prevails in three sets to win her 20th Grand Slam singles title.
