Sam Stosur v Angelique Kerber Betting Odds – US Open tennis – 09.09.11

Big hitting Stosur ready for Kerber challenge

Sports Betting

We have a pretty unlikely semi final in the bottom half of the women’s draw at the 2011 US Open, as we take a look at Angelique Kerber v Sam Stosur betting. Let’s start with the big outsider Kerber, who has taken real advantage of a good draw opening up for her in the tournament. Kerber, a young German, has never been past the third round of any Grand Slam in her short career, and crashed out in the first round of Wimbledon, the French and Australian Opens this year. Kerber has never won a WTA title in her career, but at 23, time could be on her side. Suddenly she is going to draw a lot of attention, along with other rising German stars Julia Goerges, Andrea Petkovic and Sabine Lisicki. Kerber is ranked down at 92 in the world, and has really defied the odds to be where she is at the moment. Her toughest test came in the quarter final against the experience of Italian Flavia Pennetta. Pennetta, who had scored great wins over Maria Sharapova and Francesca Schiavone in the previous rounds. Pennetta has a lot of class and was expected to be able to see off the challenge of the inexperienced Kerber. She couldn’t do it, as the German fought her way into a winning position, and was there ready to take her big chance. That was the difference in the match, Kerber was willing to attack and actually make things happen in the match, while her opponent oddly sat back a little bit. Kerber has really failed to make any kind of an impact on the WTA this year, with her best results a quarter final in Hobarth at the start of the year, and a semi final place recently in Dallas, where she lost to Aravane Rezai. This is a big moment for her, big pressure and she is not totally going to be dismissed.

Sam Stosur v Angelique Kerber betting will have the Aussie as firm favourite. A some point sooner or later in tournaments, inexperienced underdogs run out of steam. Kerber may well be in the last four of a Grand Slam, but she is not going to go all of the way and lift the title. She is still such a major outsider for that, that we will probably see Stosur in the final. Stosur, who has won just two titles in her career, is a gritty player, who hits the ball well, but never really plays consistently enough, or with enough of a threat to make herself a genuine top three player in the world or anything like that. But she is capable of beating big players around her and the draw has been pretty kind to her. She was happy to have seen off last year’s losing finalist Vera Zvonareva so easily in the quarter finals. Zvonareva had played so well to crush Sabine Lisicki, but tables were turned as the hard hitting Stosur took control of the match. That was a great win, but it was in a bit of stark contrast to what has gone before in the US Open this year for Stosur. She had an almighty battle in the third round against Nadia Petrova. The first two sets went to tie breaks and then Stosur squeezed through 7-5 in the decider. Then there was the famous, record breaking tie break effort in the second set against Maria Kirilenko in the fourth round. Stosur lost that enduring set, but picked herself back up to take the third set there. So Sam Stosur is prone to big slip ups and while she is overwhelming favourite her, she will be a little edgy and cautious. She is a big hitter though, and has a great kick serve on her which works well. If Kerber is going to be aggressive and get in after Stosur, we could see a big surprise. But on paper, Stosur should win, as Kerber looks to be punching above her weight.

Sam Stosur v Angelique Kerber Betting
Stosur to win: 2/7 at William Hill
Kerber to win: 7/2 at Ladbrokes

Sam Stosur v Angelique Kerber Betting Tip: Kerber hasn’t played all that much tennis since the start of July. In fact, since losing badly to Flavia Pennetta then in Bastad, she has only played one tournament since, in Dallas last month where she made the semi’s. So she should be fresh. Stosur and Kerber haven’t met ever before, so nothing to go on there. Simply have to back the favourite Stosur here, she has big experience and will take a bit smarter approach to the match against Kerber than Pennetta did.