15-year-old Gauff has been the talk of the town at Wimbledon so far. Having come through the qualifiers to be the youngest ever player to take part in the women’s draw, she has made some pretty big waves, including knocking out former champion Venus Williams. Can she go even bigger and take down one of the tournament favourites Simona Halep? Gauff is the 7/2 underdog for the match* (betting odds taken from bet365 on July 7th, 2019 at 2:11 pm)
Simona Halep v Cori Gauff Odds*
Simona Halep 1/5
Cori Gauff 7/2
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on July 7th, 2019 at 2:11 pm)
Can Gauff beat Halep at Wimbledon?
Well, well well. This would certainly blow the draw wide open if youngster Cori Gauff could take down former world number one Simona Halep. It has been a fairytale ride for her at SW19. She is only allowed to play 10 pro tournaments in the calendar year because she has yet to turn 16. She has chosen wisely here. She was a losing quarterfinalist a year ago at Wimbledon in the juniors tournament. Twelve months later and pretty much everyone knows her name.
The American stunned the bookies in the first round by beating Venus Williams and then went on to knock out Magdalena Rybarikova and the Polona Hercog. As good as the other two wins were, what she pulled out against Hercog was amazing. Gauff’s Wimbledon dream looked to be done for the year as she lost the first set against Hercog and then had to stare down two match points. She was stuck in there though and turned the match on its head to get through to face Halep.
Can Halep stop Gauff’s momentum?
Former world number one Simona Halep is looking for her first ever Wimbledon title. She has been a quarter final finisher twice and losing semi-finalist. In any current Grand Slam tournament, she is one of the front runners and should be for some time to come. But despite her high status in the game, she has only one Grand Slam title, a 2018 French Open success. She has lost three other Slam Finals. Her run to the fourth round at this year’s Wimbledon hasn’t been picture perfect.
She opened with a straight sets win over Aliaksandraw Sasnovich, but then found herself pegged back at 1-1 in her second round fixture against fellow Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu, surprisingly. But Halep did step on the gas in the deciding set. She then went up against Victoria Azarenka in the third round and that was when Halep’s very best tennis came out. She powered her way to victory, dropping just the four games along the way. Prior to Wimbledon, Halep did take part at the Nature Valley International on grass, losing in the quarterfinals to Angelique Kerber.
Predictions
This is where Gauff’s campaign should be done. It was a supremely dominant display that Halep, who is prone to switching off now and again, put out against Azarenka. She is such a fierce hitter and even though Gauff hasn’t had easy games, she hasn’t faced anyone close to Halep’s quality in the current standing. Halep 2-0 set betting at 8/15* (betting odds taken from bet365 on July 7th, 2019 at 2:11 pm).
