French Open Betting 2018 Women – Winner Odds & Predictions

Svitolina to challenge for Paris title

Elina Svitolina
Elina Svitolina © GEPA pictures

The second Grand Slam of the season starts on May 27 and will draw to its exciting conclusion on June 10. The French Open is the second of the four Grand Slam tournaments to play in the season, following on from the opening Australian Open and shortly after it ends, the next Grand Slam action will be coming from Wimbledon.

Once again the draw for the women’s title looks wide open and extremely competitive, and it will be young Latvian Jelena Ostapenko heading back to Roland Garros as the reigning champion. After missing last season’s French Open, Serena Williams makes a return and it will be her first Grand Slam tournament since giving birth to her first child. There has been much made about the fact that she will be going to the tournament unseeded because of her drop in ranking having not played for most of last year.

But, with Serena Williams floating around as a dangerous unseeded player it does add a bit of excitement to the draw and nobody will want to have her ending up in their quarter. Will we see another first-time winner of the French Open this season? Whatever happens in Paris over the two weeks, there is bound to be some high drama as fiercely competitive tennis. It is top seed Simona Halep who is trading as the 11/2 outright favourite bet365* (Betting Odds taken at 5:53 a.m. on May 23rd, 2018) to win this year’s edition of the French Open.

French Open 2018 Women’s Winner odds*

Simona Halep 11/2
Elina Svitolina 13/2
Maria Sharapova 10/1
Garbine Muguruza 11/1
Serena Williams 12/1
Jelena Ostapenko 12/1
Petra Kvitova 14/1
Karolina Pliskova 14/1
Daria Kasatkina 16/1
Angelique Kerber 18/1
Caroline Wozniacki 20/1
Kiki Bertens 20/1
Victoria Azarenka 25/1
Caroline Garcia 25/1
Naomi Osaka 28/1
Anett Kontaveit 28/1
Sloane Stephens 33/1
Madison Keys 33/1
Julia Goerges 33/1
Johanna Konta 40/1
Coco Vandeweghe 40/1
Venus Williams 40/1
bar 50/1*
(Betting Odds taken from Bet365 at 5:53 a.m. on May 23rd, 2018).

2017 women’s French Open review

There was a huge surprise in the outcome of last season’s French Open as unknown and unseeded Jelena Ostapenko stormed the field to win her first ever Grand Slam title. Garbine Muguruza had gone into the tournament as reigning champion, but the Spaniard couldn’t get past the fourth round. There were big name fallers in the very first round with top seed Angelique Kerber and Britain’s Johanna Konta both getting knocked out at the first hurdle.

Second seed Karolina Pliskova and third seed Simona Halep both did produce good tournaments and a clashed in a heavyweight semi final. The winner of that semi-final was expected to go on and take the title. It was Halep and came through to reach the showcase match, and she was red hot favourite to deliver her first Grand Slam title as she faced the unseeded Jelena Ostapenko there. Ostapenko had beaten the 30th seed Timea Bacsinszky in the semis. In a remarkable show of sheer fearless tennis though, it was the young Latvian Ostapenko who came through the challenge to beat Halep after having lost the first set to the Romanian.

2018 women’s French Open top eight seeds

  1. Simona Halep
  2. Caroline Wozniacki
  3. Garbine Muguruza
  4. Elina Svitolina
  5. Jelena Ostapenko
  6. Karolina Pliskova
  7. Caroline Garcia
  8. Petra Kvitova

2018 Women’s French Open Preview

Simona Halep will once again be the top seed for the French Open, just as she was 12 months ago. It is one of those strange situations with Halep in that she is one of the best players on the circuit, but she just hasn’t been able to get that elusive Grand Slam title despite being in three previous Grand Slam finals, two of those being at the French Open. She did make the final of this season’s first Grand Slam the Australian Open, where she lost in three sets to Caroline Wozniacki. Halep is the current world number one and she does have a title to her name this season having won in China right at the start of the season. It has been a quiet season from Halep, aside from the Australian Open and a title winning run in China, she has only appeared in a handful of other tournaments. She reached the semi finals of Qatar back in early February, then made another semi-final run at Indian Wells in early March and disappointed with an early exit at the Miami open in late March.

Halep is the 11/2 outright favourite at bet365* (Betting Odds taken at 5:53 a.m. on May 23rd, 2018) to win this season’s French Open, and maybe her dialled-back season is going to help her achieve that. Her run to the final of Rome recently, where she lost to Elina Svitolina on clay, will have given renewed hope of getting that first Grand Slam title. Karolina Pliskova has struggled to make it to the business end of tournaments this season. After losing in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open to Simona Halep, Pliskova could only manage quarter-final runs at both Indian Wells and Miami in other major tournaments this season.

She had that blowout on the clay in Rome recently as well, where she attacked the umpire’s chair at the end of the match, after having been denied a good winning position late in the match because of a super-dodgy line call. As a positive, she did win on the clay in Stuttgart this season. The Czech Republic star had her best ever run at the French Open with her semi-final appearance 12 months ago and she has been to at least the quarter-finals in five of the last six Grand Slam tournaments. Pliskova’s only Grand Slam final appearance remains her 2016 US open final loss to Angelique Kerber.

Caroline Wozniacki made it to the quarter finals of the French Open last year and she will be looking to build on her success at the Australian Open earlier this year. After starting the season strongly her results drifted away a little bit with recent poor Indian Wells and Miami Open performances. She really doesn’t have a great track record at the French Open to really warrant backing with a great deal of confidence, the Dane having never been past the quarter-finals in Paris. She recently bowed out of the quarter-final stage in Rome.

Elina Svitolina is bang in form again with three titles already having been won this season. Her first came in Brisbane right at the start of the year and then after a win in Dubai, Svitolina got title defence completed in Rome recently on clay. That was quite telling win as well because in the quarter-finals she had gotten past Angelique Kerber and then took down Simona Halep (convincingly so) in the final itself. So Svitolina at 13/2 odds with bet365* (Betting Odds taken at 5:53 a.m. on May 23rd, 2018) does look a serious challenger. Former French Open champion Maria Sharapova will also take confidence from a good run at Rome on clay where she reached the semi finals before losing in three sets to Simona Halep.

Garbine Muguruza, Jelena Ostapenko, Angelique Kerber and Petra Kvitova are in that cluster of players who have the potential to go on to make a serious title challenge but at the same time you just never quite sure about them putting things together. You will need to see their early-round form first. Ostapenko reached the quarter-finals in Rome recently so she had a good build up there on clay, while Petra Kvitova has title successes behind her this season and Muguruza is one of those players who one day can take down the best with her best, but that best doesn’t show up often enough.

Dark Horses

The competition runs pretty deep in the women’s draw, unlike in the men’s. There are great underdog value options in the likes of Caroline Garcia, the improving Naomi Osaka, Daria Kasatkina and Anett Kontaveit, the latter of which recently had a tremendous run through to the semi finals in Rome. They are big odds options, but very talented, and not without form this season and they can just look back just 12 months ago to Ostapenko’s success for a bit of inspiration as well.

Serena Williams

So what about the challenge of Serena Williams? This is her first Grand Slam back since the 2017 Australian Open and that is a long time away from the at its most competitive level. She is one of the legends of the game, but time away from major tournaments like this isn’t something that is, how you actually go and win them again. Williams because of her now low ranking in the world, takes an unseeded spot at the French Open 2018 and that makes a fascinating prospect as to where she is going to end up in the draw. Which of the top seeds are going to be unlucky enough to have to try and deal with early in the tournament. At 12/1 odds* (Betting Odds taken at 5:53 a.m. on May 23rd, 2018) going into the French Open 2018 that says a lot about her, because anybody else would have been at a massive price. More likely than not Williams will have a hard route ahead of because of the unseeded tag, and we don’t see her going all the way and lifting the title.

Predictions

Once again the women’s draw is wide open and you can expect to see some early top seed casualties again. The women’s game is that competitive at the moment and it is a little bit difficult to narrow down the field. Of the front runners, Elina Svitolina is perhaps the one who is carrying the most form and one who has the best form on clay this season. She is well worth backing to be there or thereabouts at the end. Of the other front runners, neither Pliskova, Wozniacki, Sharapova or Muguruza appeals enough.

You can’t really dismiss the chances of Simona Halep who surely has to get Grand Slam title sooner or later. Halep is one of the more natural clay-court players in the women’s game and she looked pretty dialled in a recent run to the final of Rome.

Of the longer priced each way dark horses for the 2018 French Open betting, Ostapenko is actually worth a look for a title defence because she is in pretty decent form, but of the bigger odds options we would look for home talent Caroline Garcia with the extra boost of home support behind. The French youngster made her best ever run at the French Open last season, and can potentially be in the mix but nothing more than an each-way option.