Women's French Open Betting: Stephens a big-priced addition to the longshot portfolio

Is Sloane Stephens ready for grand slam glory?

Gary Boswell loves backing big odds in the major women's tennis tournaments and he updates his French Open portfolio with the addition of rising American Sloane Stephens. Here's why... 

A wild first week at Roland Garros with all three top seeds knocked out of the women's draw. On Friday morning five of my six longshots still stood but only two survived the third round and I go into the business end of the tournament looking to add another to my portfolio.

If you are following, you can take heart from the two survivors - Carla Suarez-Navarro and Sara Errani - who both have strong chance to make the semis from the second and fourth quarters of the draw. If you are thinking of hedging back on these two whose prices are now seriously shrunken (Errani's down to 11.5n/a from 60.059/1 and Suarez Navarro down to 32.031/1 from [110.0), the advice would be to hold fire at least another round on the Mallorcan who has a fourth round pairing against Ajla Tomljanovic that she can win. She is then faced with either Eugenie Bouchard or Angelique Kerber in the quarters and has good back scores against both of these two.

Her clay court game is her weapon and her court movement her great strength and with a beefed-up serve, she has a real chance now. Maria Sharapova is her likely semi-final opponent and I'd rate that a 50-50 call on the surface so long as she matches the Russian in battle of the mind games.

Former finalist Sara Errani has a tough match next round against Jelena Jankovic and while I might fancy her for that and the likelihood of a slightly easier quarter-final, I would not be against Cashing Out on her now with so much of her early price disappeared. That said, she has a real shot at the title with Serena ousted and is the current third favourite.

Of the two other quarters, the strength seems to lie mainly in that third quarter if, like me, you remain unconvinced by Sharapova on clay. Yes, that sublime forehand is still a mighty weapon and her mindset is as rock solid as ever but Tsvetana Pironkova exposed how her court movement is still her Achilles Heel in the second round and I'd still be very hopeful that the buzzy clay courters can be her undoing. A false favourite in my book is Maria Sharapova at 2.829/5. 

The third quarter last-16 sees former winner Svetlana Kuznetsova against big-serving Lucie Safarova but the real pair to focus on are the youngsters in the other fixture. Romainian Simona Halep is now the highest seed standing and playing out of her skin. She has had a tremendous 2014 already and is both a clay court specialist and a player striking the ball as sweetly as it is possible to do. If her nerve holds, she is favourite in my book to make her Grand Slam breakthrough.

She's a short price now though at 4.84/1 and I prefer the longshot bet on Sloane Stephens at 46.045/1.

The American has been the heir to Serena Williams for a while now. Among the emerging youngsters on tour no-one generates quite the power that she does. She holds a head-to-head plus over Halep (albeit Halep is ahead on clay) and much will depend on how Stephens continues to handle the surface. She has been surprisingly supreme on it so far and at the price offered she's the selected addition to my longshot portfolio. 

Recommended Bet
Back Sloane Stephens at 46.045/1 in the women's tournament winner market