The American is the 5-2 favorite at Bovada to win this year’s second major. The tournament begins Sunday on the red clay of Roland Garros in Paris, with the women’s championship match set for June 9.
The French Open just hasn’t been good to U.S. players since the turn of the century. An American man hasn’t won the title since Andre Agassi in 1999, and there’s virtually no chance one will this year. On the women’s side, Williams’ 2002 championship win over sister Venus Williams was the last title for an American woman. In fact, no U.S. woman has even reached the finals since then.
Serena Williams has been playing well of late this year. She won consecutive titles in Charleston, S.C., and Madrid, plus two matches in the Fed Cup for a 17-match winning streak. But that streak ended when she withdrew from the Italian Open in Rome with a lower back injury shortly before she was scheduled to meet defending French Open champion Li Na in the semifinals last Saturday.
Williams said it was just a precaution, and she will be ready for Paris. She missed the French Open last year due to injury and reached the quarterfinals the previous two years. She hasn’t won a Grand Slam tournament since Wimbledon in 2010 but did finish runner-up at last year’s U.S. Open.
World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka is the second favorite at 4-1. She also had to withdraw from the Italian Open because of a right shoulder injury following a second-round victory. Azarenka has won four titles this year, including the Australian Open for her first Grand Slam championship. She lost the clay-court Madrid Open final on May 14 to Serena Williams. Azarenka has played the French Open six times, with a best finish of the quarterfinals last year, when Azarenka was beaten in straight sets by eventual champion Li.
Second-ranked Maria Sharapova is the third favorite at 6-1. The former world No. 1 beat Li in the finals to defend her title in last week’s Italian Open. Sharapova also won a tournament in Stuttgart in late April, beating No. 1 Azarenka in easy fashion. Sharapova has won every Grand Slam tournament in her career once except the French Open. She has reached the semifinals twice, including last year.
Li is at 12-1 to repeat in Paris. She became the first-ever Asian major champ, male or female, by dethroning defending titlist Francesca Schiavone in the 2011 women’s finals. Li has yet to win a title this year. No player has repeated as women’s champion since Justine Henin won three in a row from 2005-07. Before last year, Li had never advanced past the fourth round in the tournament. And she has struggled in the past three Grand Slam events since her win.
Also at 12-1 are Petra Kvitova and Samantha Stosur. Kvitova is the reigning Wimbledon champion but has never advanced past the fourth round in three previous tries at Roland Garros. Stosur is the reigning U.S. Open champion. She was bounced in the third round of the French Open in 2011 but reached the finals the year before, losing 6-4, 7-6 to Schiavone.
Photo via Facebook/SerenaWilliams
