Federation Cup Preview – Women’s Tennis Betting

Champions likely to take some stopping again in the Federations Cup

Tennis Betting

It’s the semi-finals of the Federation Cup this weekend with the Czech Republic taking on France and Russia up against Germany in Sochi.

The Russians are the marginal favourites for the tournament at a general 7/4 and have a strong line-up. World number two Maria Sharapova will play two singles matches against the Germans, as will Svetlana Kuznetsova. Either Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or Elena Vesnina will partner Kuznetsova in the doubles.

Russia has won three of their previous Federation Cup meetings with Germany but the teams haven’t faced each other since 2002 and the Germans shouldn’t be underestimated on the clay courts of the Adler Arena. They comfortably saw off Australia in the first round of the World Group and will make the four-times champions work hard for victory. Andrea Petkovic, Angelique Kerber and Sabine Licki are all in the world’s top 20 and have made themselves available for this crucial tie. Barbara Rittner‘s team are a general 4/1 to go on and win the Federation Cup.

Petra Kvitova

At 9/5 with bwin, I like the look of the Czech Republic to successfully defend their Federation Cup title. The Czechs are bidding to reach a fourth final in five years and have developed into a formidable team under Petr Pala.

They showed their strength-in-depth in the first round when whitewashing Canada, even though they were without two of their best players. World number four Petra Kvitova returns for their semi-final against the French, along with Lucie Sarafova.

Player-for-player, they look in a different league to France and also have home advantage – the hardcourt of the Cez Arena looks tailor-made for Kvitova – though the French do have a better head-to-head historical record in matches between the countries. Amelie Mauresmo‘s team came back from 2-0 down to beat Italy in the first round but they won’t be able to give the Czech Republic any kind of a start in Ostrava and are rightly the outsiders of the remaining four teams at 13/2 with Coral. They might struggle to take even one rubber off the Czechs if everything goes to form and ranking.