French Open 2019 Semi-Final Preview – Friday, June 7th
Britain’s Johanna Konta has reached the third Grand Slam semifinal of her career. It is the first time that a British woman has been in the semifinals of Roland Garros since Jo Durie managed to put together a run there in 1983.
Marketa Vondrousova v Johanna Konta Odds*
Konta 4/5
Vondrousova 5/4
* (betting odds taken from Bet365 on June 5th, 2019 at 10:41 pm)
Konta charging towards success
Much has been made of the fact that Konta had never before won a match at Roland Garros before this campaign. Now she is on the brink of a Grand Slam final on clay. It has been such a stunning run of tennis from her as well. Konta has dropped only the one set on her way to the final four in Paris.
Her straight-sets victory over Sloane Stephens in the quarterfinals had everyone out of their seats. She was totally unplayable as her American opponent found out. Konta has a huge asset in her first serve when it working well and some faster clay courts has been suiting her game in Paris this season. But she was building up to it after reaching the final of Rome recently.
Head to Head
There has only been the two previous meetings between Konta and Vondrousova. The head to head stands at one win each. The first meeting happened last year at Indian Wells with Vondrousova taken a straight-sets victory on hard court. But the two met in Rome recently with Konta taking a 2-1 match victory in the quarterfinals.
Vondrousova showing strength
The Czech Republic player ranked 38th in the world at the moment has one career title behind her. That was back in 2017 at Biel. She has been to two WTA finals this season already in Budapest and Istanbul so the 19-year-old has been carrying some great form with her this season. Prior to this season, she had a W1 L2 record at Roland Garros.
She actually gone better than Konta in having reached the semi-finals without having dropped a single set. Vondrousova came past Petra Martic in the quarterfinals, who had beaten her in the final of Istanbul on Clay at the end of April. It has been an impressive run and has easily beaten her best ever Grand Slam effort which was reaching the round of sixteen last year at the US Open.
Prediction
Kotna is switched on and if she brings the service game that she did against Stephens in the last round then she should win this. The only time that Konta’s concentration has waned in this tournament was in the second set of her second round match against Lauren Davis. But then Konta dusted herself down to impressively win the final set.
But you do wonder if she can produce that same level of accuracy and intensity again. If she replicated that every match she would be collecting tiles left, right and centre. Vondrousova is no pushover at all and has some form behind her this year. She is going to be sticking around in there and Konta 2-1 set win is at 3/1 odds* (betting odds taken from Bet365 on June 5th, 2019 at 10:41 pm)
