The first Grand Slam of the new season brings together the stars of the game in Melbourne. The Australian Open is a tough, gruelling event, with players not being given much of a chance to get form behind them after the winter break. So players pretty much have to hit the ground running and be at their best from the off. The seeded players will all be looking to avoid a first round upset while looking ahead to the outright winner market, unlike the men’s draw, the women’s draw looks wide, wide open.
Basically in the men’s you have Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, but in the women’s draw things are far more evenly spread out. You can look down the top ten seeds and see pretty much that everyone can beat everyone else on their given day, so the women’s event in Australian Open 2017 Women’s Singles Betting is a lot tougher to call that the men’s side of things. Going back into the tournament as defending champion is Germany’s Angelique Kerber who was the star attraction of the 2016 WTA Tour season. She hasn’t shown the early season form though to suggest that she is going to make a big run to a title defence though.
The most dominant player in the last decade, Serena Williams is in the draw and she is bigger odds at 3/1 with Paddy Power going into this one than you will have seen her for some time at the start of a Grand Slam. The former Champion has a tricky draw ahead of her as well and she does go in the same quarter as the great British hope of Johanna Konta who just won the Sydney title and has had her price in Australian Open 2017 Women’s Singles Betting cut because of that. That fourth quarter where they are housed is the toughest of the four sections and there is reason enough to expect a surprise winner there.
Australian Open 2017 Women’s Singles Betting is going to offer up tremendous value but you will need to go and analyse the draw to try and narrow down the field. Break the tournament down by quarters which will help tremendously in the first place and look at past form at the Australian Open and on hard courts from last season. In Melbourne you have the extra factor of very hot conditions as well as the courts playing a lot faster than what most players on the Tour will be used week-in week-out on the tour. As we saw last year with Kerber coming through the field, there could be something of an underdog get their hands on the title again.
Australian Open 2017 Women’s Singles Betting
| Player | Betting Odds |
|---|---|
| Serena Williams | 3/1 |
| Angelique Kerber | 7/2 |
| Karolina Pliskova | 6/1 |
| Garbine Muguruza | 9/1 |
| Simona Halep | 11/1 |
| Johanna Konta | 18/1 |
| Agnieszka Radwanska | 22/1 |
| Dominika Cibulkova | 25/1 |
| Elina Svitolina | 33/1 |
| Caroline Wozniacki | 40/1 |
| Daria Kasatkina | 50/1 |
| Svetlana Kuznetsova | 50/1 |
| bar | 66/1 |
Australian Open 2017 Women’s Singles Betting Promotion
For the men’s draw at the Australian Open only there is a good promotion running over at online betting site Paddy Power. Back a pre-match winner and if your selection goes and opens up at two-set lead at any point in the match you will be paid out a winner immediately. This is regardless of whether or not your selection wins the match. So a great tennis betting offer from the bookmaker and there will be a wealth of live in play betting opportunities from the Australian Open 2017 Men’s Singles Betting as well. Register an account with Paddy Power and earn up to £30 worth of free bets as a welcome bonus from them.
Australian Open 2017 Women’s Singles Betting Draw
To win First Quarter odds
Angelique Kerber 6/4, Garbine Muguruza 4/1, Daria Kasatkina 10/1, Eugenie Bouchard 12/1
Kerber will be expected to win this but it is worth opposing her totally. Kerber’s warm up for the Australian Open has not gone particularly well with some unexpected defeats against a couple of lower ranked players. So that means she is vulnerable at the moment and it really looks to be a big ask of her to get through this field. Kerber has actually a very tricky run to the fourth round, likely going against players who hold decent averages on hard courts like Kristyna Pliskova and Carina Witthoeft. Eugenie Bouchard will be running with some confidence after going to the semi finals of Sydney last week, but she is generally just too flaky to back with a lot of confidence. Muguruza hasn’t done much of anything really and it doesn’t make a lot of sense to back her. So the way to roll with this one is look for the underdog Daria Kasatkina to come through. The young Russian has been impressive in the early season and could set up a huge clash with Kerber in the fourth round (she may have to go through too). Why the underdog? Kasatkina who is more of a clay court player, beat Kerber in Sydney last week.
Prediction: Kasatkina
To Win Second Quarter odds
Simona Halep 9/4, Elina Svitolina 4/1, Svetlana Kuznetsova 8/1, Venus Williams 10/1, Monoc Puig 12/1
A very interesting second quarter as Halep is expected to dominate. She does have the easier section of the quarter to get through, but Halep looks no value here. She doesn’t exactly have a brilliant track record in Grand slam and she generally fails when she goes up against top opponents where her return-based game seems to fail her. It’s surprising that she hasn’t pushed on to a new level after making her big breakthrough a few years ago, she has kind of stagnated and is worth opposing in the quarter. But who to plug for then? Olympic Champion Monica Puig isn’t going to raise much interest, while Elina Svitolina is well worth a shot because she has the easiest draw of all of them. She’s a decent enough performer on the hard courts to pull this out. The draw sits pretty favourably for Kuznetsova to have a crack at this and even though Halep is in the draw, both of them look far better value that the section’s favorite.
Prediction: Svitolina
To Win Third Quarter Odds
Karolina Pliskova 15/8, Agnieszka Radwanska 3/1, Daria Gavrilova 12/1, Alize Cornet 20/1, Ana Konjuh 20/1, Timea Bacsinszky 25/1
This is the most lightweight section of the draw and it is wide open. Karolina Pliskova is running as favourite and she is receiving a favourable draw as well going through in this one. Pliskova has the serve to get her through this pretty comfortably to the fourth round. The same can be said of Agnieszka Radwanska who can’t be unhappy with her draw in this section either and while she doesn’t have the serve that Pliskova does, she has the craft and guile to move through. Radwanska isn’t worth backing to get her hands on the title outright as she struggles in final sets of matches and has a below par record in Grand Slams as it is. But then you have a good chance to oppose the two strongest players in this quarter and young Croatian Ana Konjuh is ticking along well on hard courts on the moment. It would be a massive run from the 19 year old but is worth a flutter. Everyone else in the weak quarter just looks far to unpredictable and erratic to throw any money at. We may see the young Konjuh come put together a nice run, however, we are going to stick with backing a favourite to come through this challenge.
Prediction: Pliskova
To Win Fourth Quarter Odds
Serena Williams 11/10, Johanna Konta 9/2, Dominika Cibulkova 8/1, Caroline Wozniacki 10/1, Belinda Bencic 18/1, Ekaterina Makarova 22/1, Caroline Garcia 20/1, 22/1 bar
Johanna Konta’s run in Sydney last week raised her stock ahead of the Australian Open 2017. She was on fire last week and totally destroyed Radwanska in their semi final meeting. That was some impressive stuff, arguably the best match played from any player on the WTA this season. So she has received plenty of backing here but she could have a tricky draw with big-serving Naomi Osaki and the experienced Caroline Wozniacki lying in wait down the line. Osaka picked up an injury recently and Wozniacki has looked short of her best so far this year. Konta can hold her own her, once she gets ahead in a match she is extremely tough to get back at. Strong starts in matches are going to be key for her. Dominika Cibulkova is a handful for any opponent on her day, you are just never sure whether or not she is going to bring her a-game on the day. Well, we have come this far without mentioning Serena Williams. She is an intangible in the quarter, but while at 3/1 she is no valuable whatsoever in the Australian Open Outright market she is even worse off to win this quarter. With Belinda Bencic and potentially Lucie Safarova to come before the third round, shockingly, it’s worth forgetting that she is in the quarter.
Australian Open 2017 Women’s Singles Betting Predictions
It is so hard to pick out a winner in this field. You have a coin toss in the men’s draw with Djokovic or Murray, but here everything is so evenly matched up. It is worth looking beyond the outright favourites Williams and Kerber because they look well short of value. We would love to back Konta to go all the way, but the draw hasn’t totally been favourable to her, so we are going to roll with Karolina Pliskova in this one at a 6/1 outright price with Paddy Power. She has an easy, easy quarter to get through which should build some momentum ahead of the tougher week, as well as conserving energy. She wasn’t at her best after the US Open last year where she went to the final, but she’s worth backing to get back on track as that run to the final indicates that she can perform on the big stage.
