The women’s draw at the Roland Garros is wide open this year

It’s not Serena vs. The Rest of the WTA at Roland Garros. At least not by numbers.

Everyone on the WTA has a little extra in the tank when they play Serena Williams but they might want to conserve their energy for the rest of the field. Jeff Sackman for Heavy Topspin did a forecast for this year’s Roland Garros and discovered Simona Halep was the favourite with a 22.2% chance of defending her title. The rest of the WTA had chances of 10% or less.

What’s interesting is the dominance of previous decades has reduced as the overall field has become stronger. Clay is a notorious surface. Of the ten “weakest” favourites between 1989-2019, only three of them won:

Year  Favorite            Fave Odds     
2010  Venus Williams          12.9%     
2018  Simona Halep            19.1%  *  
2011  Caroline Wozniacki      22.0%     
2019  Simona Halep            22.2%     
2017  Simona Halep            23.0%     
2006  Justine Henin           23.3%  *  
2005  Justine Henin           23.4%  *  
2012  Victoria Azarenka       24.1%     
2008  Maria Sharapova         24.5%     
2009  Dinara Safina           24.7%

(* Favourites who won that year)

Could Halep follow Henin in the above list and win consecutive titles as the favourite? Or is there another upset on the cards? It’s gonna be interesting.

Head over to Heavy Topspin for the full article.