Simona Halep v Maria Sharapova is the most talked about match in the first round of the US Open. What a stunning, high profile showdown you have to look forward too in this one. Halep is 4/9 odds on favourite at bet365 to land the win in the match and march on in what is a pretty tough quarter which also contains outright third-favourite Johanna Konta who could be waiting for a quarter final showdown.
Simona Halep v Maria Sharapova US Open Tennis odds
Simona Halep 4/9, Maria Sharapova 7/4
This is Maria Sharapova’s first Grand Slam campaign since coming back from her ban. She has played four tournaments since her comeback but from a decent a run to the quarter finals of Stuttgart on clay, she has produced nothing of note. She has just the one hard court game under belt this season which was a first round win over Jennifer Brady in Stanford which took Sharapova three sets to pull of before withdrawing. But she has a 6-0 head to head record against Halep.
The last time that Halep and Sharapova met was in the WTA Finals back in 2015 which, of course, Sharapova won. This will be the first meeting between the two at the US Open and only the second Grand Slam match up after their clash in the final of the 2014 French Open when the Russian had to dig pretty deep in the final set to hold off Halep. What is Sharapova’s fitness going to be like? How match sharp is she going to be?
There are questions over Halep’s mental strength and we have seen that again this year in losing the French Open final against Jelena Ostapenko and then in the quarter finals of Wimbledon to Jo Konta when Halep just couldn’t close out the second set and couldn’t hold herself together in the decider. Her Australian Open campaign this year ended in a first round loss. But Halep has been the far busier of the two in the build up and is carrying form.
Halep lost a semi final duel with Elina Svitolina in Toronto at the Rogers Cup and then immediately turned around and won Cincinnati where she saw off Johanna Konta in the quarter finals before taking down US Open outright favourite Garbine Muguruza in the final itself. So maybe she is just peaking for this hard court challenge and is carrying the form to pull this off. This is a huge match for Halep, because if she gets through this, then just imagine what that will do for her mental fortitude going forward. This is a massive early test but Halep can pull it off.
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