French Open Women's Betting: Halep to continue her rise to the top

Can Halep continue her perfect French Open run?

Abelson Info take a closer look at the remaining quarter-final clashes to see who will join Maria Sharapova and Eugenie Bouchard in the last four...

Despite facing a tough pair of opponents on Tuesday, both Maria Sharapova and Eugenie Bouchard prevailed to seal their places in the semi-finals later this week.

With the top half of the draw now set attention switches to the bottom half on Wednesday as our tournament tip Simona Halep returns to the court hoping to continue her impressive progress through the French Open.

It was another business-like performance from the Romanian star last time out as she dispatched Sloane Stephens in straight sets, and the fourth seed is now the highest ranked player left in the draw as she features in the quarter-finals in Paris for the first time in her career.

Her meteoric rise really is something to be applauded, especially considering that after losing in the first round here last year as the 57th seed, she has since gone on to win seven tournaments and establish herself as the world number four.

However, she faces a former Paris champion next, with Svetlana Kuznetsova continuing her impressive run in the French capital in a bid to add to the championship that she won back in 2009.

While Halep has yet to drop a set in the tournament, her opponent has found it only slightly more difficult in reaching this stage with a three-set win over Petra Kvitova the only real test that she has had to face.

Nevertheless, what makes this match-up particularly intriguing is that the pair have split their previous four meetings, and are also 1-1 in their head-to-head on clay. Halep destroyed her rival in Rome in 2013, but Kuznetsova hit back in a tight contest in Stuttgart last month.

This is likely to be where Halep will have to dig deep for the first time in the tournament, and while we are still confident that she can continue her progress, it may require her to go the distance.

In the other quarter-final, Andrea Petkovic will be hoping to upset the odds when she faces the feisty Sara Errani who is making her third straight appearance at this stage of the tournament.

Errani overcame the challenge of Jelena Jankovic in the last round as she put on a real counter-punching display to silence her Serbian rival, and she will be expected to display all those dogged traits again when she takes on Petkovic.

The German ace is enjoying a real resurgence so far this year, and with the draw opening up for her she hasn't disappointed despite some tough opposition.

However, this could be where the journey ends as after losing to Errani as recently as in Madrid earlier this month, the Italian will be confident that her winning mentality will get the better of her rival.

Recommended Bets

Back Halep to beat Kuznetsova 2-1 @ 3.953/1
Back Errani to beat Petkovic 2-0 @ 1.9620/21