Lob and Smash
Fansided

French Open: Women’s SF Predictions

By Jake Fletcher

facebooktwitterreddit

French Open: Can the two pretenders take down the two former champs?

The semi finals of the French Open are set. As I predicted, the American, Serena Williams will play the Swiss, Timea Bacsinszky and the Serb, Ana Ivanovic will play the Czech, Lucie Safarova. Though perhaps not the semi final line-up most would have anticipated, it will make for compelling viewing as two former champions take on two in-form title pretenders.

Here are my predictions as to who will reach the final.

(Rank/Seed)

(1/1) Serena Williams vs (24/23) Timea Bacsinszky

Serena was much sharper in her quarter final than she’d been in her last three matches. The two time former champion used (17/17) Sara Errani’s weak serve as target practice and bullied her opponent into submission, 61 63. Serena was surprisingly uptight and animated considering the ease of her victory, but she needn’t worry ahead of her semi final. It’s well known that once Serena reaches this stage of a Grand Slam, she’s practically unplayable. She’s won 23 of the 26 semi finals she’s played, including two out of three in Paris.

Timea ended the fairy-tale run of (93/-) Alison Van Uytvanck in the quarters, edging her 64 75. The Belgian made the fundamental error of playing into her opponent’s lethal backhand wing much too often. Needless to say, this will be Timea’s first Grand Slam semi final.  

More from French Open

Serena has won both of their previous meetings in straight sets. Their last came on the hard courts in Indian Wells earlier this year. Serena ended Timea’s 15 match winning streak at the time in the quarters, 75 63.

Understandably, Serena is a huge favourite for this match. Timea must use her backhand to attack as often as possible.

Prediction: Serena Williams

(7/7) Ana Ivanovic vs (13/13) Lucie Safarova

Ana handled the blustery conditions far better than her opponent during the quarter finals. Hammering away with her forehand, Ana maintained her unbeaten record against (21/19) Elina Svitolina, brushing her aside 63 62. Despite reaching four Grand Slam semis between 2007-2008, this will be her first since winning the title here in 2008.

Similarly, Lucie handled the situation better than her younger opponent. In a high quality struggle, which saw no breaks of serve in the first set, Lucie harnessed all of her experience to edge (20/21) Garbine Muguruza 76(3) 63. Lucie has guaranteed herself a place in the top 10 now that she has reached her second Grand Slam semi final in the space of a year.

Lucie has a slight 5-3 lead in their head to head, though Ana won their last meeting in Tokyo last autumn. Before that, Lucie had won their past five matches stretching back to 2009. This involved Lucie beating Ana 63 63 in the 3rd round here last year.

It’s obvious that Ana struggles against Lucie’s lefty game, probably because Lucie’s forehand strength plays into Ana’s backhand weakness. Though Ana has an impressive 3:1 winning ratio in Grand Slam semis, they came too long ago to be considered relevant now.

Prediction: Lucie Safarova

Next: French Open: Women's Quarter Final Predictions- Top Half

More from Lob and Smash

Home/French Open