Kaia Kanepi v Serena Williams Preview – 2nd September, 2018
Serena Williams came through her tie against her sister Venus with consummate ease and Williams said that it had been her best match since returning to the game. So Serena Williams who is the 5/2 outright favourite* (betting odds taken on September 1st, 2018 at 11:45 pm) goes marching on and she is the overwhelming favourite to win this match as well.
Looking back at the start of the draw she would have expected to have been meeting world number one Simona Halep at this stage. However the Romanian lost in the first round to Williams’ next opponent Kanepi.
Kaia Kanepi v Serena Williams Odds*
Serena Williams 1/5
Kaia Kanepi 7/1
* (betting odds taken on September 1st, 2018 at 11:45 pm)
Williams has fought her way through to the fourth round without dropping a set so far at Flushing Meadows. Really it hasn’t been that much of a fight. She dropped just the four games in both her first and second round matches and then only conceded three against her sister in the third round. So she is humming along at the moment and carrying a huge threat to the rest of the field at Flushing Meadows. It’s impressive how she goes about her business quietly without fuss.
There isn’t too much head to head to look at between Kanepi and Williams. They have met just four times before and the most recent one was at the 2014 US Open in the round of sixteen. Williams eased to a 6-3 6-3 win on that occasion. They have met three times on hard court before. Williams hasn’t dropped a single set in any of her four previous games against Kanepi and a Williams 2-0 option in set betting is at 4/7 odds* (betting odds taken on September 1st, 2018 at 11:45 pm).
Really the only thing with piques interest about this match is the first round win that Kanepi pulled out of her hat. The 33-year-old Estonian shocked world number one Simona Halep in straight sets, a game in which she was naturally a heavy underdog for. Kanepi is ranked 44th in the world and took a 27-13 match record into the US Open with her. That having been said she has been a quarter-finalist twice at Flushing Meadows in 2010 and then again last year. She clearly enjoys her time here. If she wins this it will trump the underdog success of her beating Halep.
Prediction
Halep is prone to those days where she doesn’t look mentally at it, but you rarely see that from Williams. Serena looks in good shape, full of power and dialled in on the job at hand. We see Williams doing this will little stress along the way because of her power and would back her to complete in straight sets.
