French Open Sportsbook Favorite Henin is Eliminated. The favorite at the sportsbook to win the French Open on the women’s side was Justine Henin. The four-time French Open champ was eliminated by seventh-seeded Samantha Stosur, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 on Monday. The loss ended a 24-match winning streak for Henin at the French Open and opened up the tournament in odds at the sportsbook for top seed Serena Williams.
Sportsbook odds favored Henin before the French Open began with Serena Williams the second choice. Now it is all about Serena with Henin out of the tournament. Henin had told everyone that she was not back at the level of play she was two years ago. She was still favored at the French Open though because of her great success at Roland Garros.
The loss to Stosur was a surprise but Stosur is no slouch when it comes to playing on clay. She made the semifinals last year and she leads the tour with a record of 18-2 on clay this year. Stosur now gets a chance to eliminate Serena in the quarterfinals where she will be a big underdog vs. the sportsbook odds again. Serena has won two of the past three Grand Slams and is now the favorite to win the French Open. The other quarterfinal in that half will have fourth-seed Jelena Jankovic heavily favored agianst 36th ranked Yaroslava Shvedova. The other two quarterfinals have third seeded Caroline Wozniacki taking on Francesca Schiavone and fifth-seeded Elena Dementieva facing Nadia Petrova.
One the men’s side things are a little more on form vs. the odds at the sportsbook. Four-time champ Rafael Nadal reached the quarterfinals with a straight set win over No. 24 Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil. He will face No. 19 Nicolas Almagro, who upset No. 7 Fernando Verdasco. The other quarterfinal on the bottom half in French Open odds at the sportsbook will have third-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia facing No. 22 Jurgen Melzer of Austria. The top half of the quarterfinals has top seed Roger Federer taking on fifth seed Robin Soderling and Tomas Berydch facing Mikhail Youzhny.
The quarterfinals are when the matchups really get interesting and when the odds become more competitive. That should be the case this time as well with some excellent matchups on the board.