We have now reached the latter stages of the first Grand Slam of the season, the Australian Open coming from Melbourne. We preview the Women’s Semi-Finals being played Thursday morning, the first due to start at 8.30am GMT with the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka up against the Spaniard Paula Badosa.
The 6ft 26yo Sabalenka will be hoping to regain her title having won the Australian Open in 2023 and 2024, in last seasons competition she didn’t drop a set throughout but she has done this year to the hands of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the Quarter-Finals, the world number on looked to be in control having taken the opening set 6-2 but Pavlyuchenkova broke early in the second set going on to level the match taking it 2-6.
The Russian broke the serve of Sabalenka in the 3rd game of the deciding set but it was broken straight back. The world number one held her serve and eventually broke the serve of Pavlyuchenkova to make it 5-3 and then served out the match taking the final set 6-3. She held her nerves and her class came through in the end.
The challenger tomorrow is 12th seed Badosa who like Sabalenka has only dropped one set so far in this Grand Slam and that was to Marta Kostyuk in the 3rd road. Her Quarter-Final saw her knock out the world number 3 Cori Gauff in straight sets 7-5 6-4. She’s already surpassed her 3rd round exit in last year’s Australian Open but getting through to the finals will be a shock but a great personal achievement.
Match Betting:
USA Betting Sites: Aryna Sabalenka 2/7 and Paula Badosa 27/10.
Casinos Non UK: Aryna Sabalenka 2/7 and Paula Badosa 11/4.
The second Semi-Final sees World Number 2 Iga Swiatek take on World Number 14 Madison Keys. The Polish Swiatek has gone through this competition without dropping a set beating Siniakova, Sramkova, Raducanu, Lys and then Navarro in the Quarter-Final. She is playing with extreme confidence this season after an early third round exit last season. Her best surface is arguably Clay having won last year’s French Open but we can see her getting her 2025 season off to a flyer in Melbourne.
Madison Keys has dropped three sets en route to this semi to Ruse, Rybakina and Svitolina. The big server will hope her first serve is firing as the head to head is 4-1 to the Polish Swiatek. Scheduled Start 10am GMT.
Match Betting:
Gambling Sites Not on Gamban: Madison Keys 4/1 and Iga Swiatek 2/11.
Credit Card Gambling Sites: Madison Keys 4/1 and Iga Swiatek 2/11.
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We wish you the best of luck and please remember to gamble responsibly.
