Francesca Schiavone vs Varvara Lepchenko

Francesca Schiavone is finally playing her old, good tennis once again. She struggled for the most of the season and couldn’t simply make some obvious progress, but finally she entered her good for when it was needed the most. Her start of the season wasn’t that good, except semifinals in Brisbane, very first tournament of the season. Later on, she couldn’t couldn’t make two wins in a row, all the way since last week when she won Strasbourg Open. She won over Catandu, Lucic, Larsson, Stephens and Cornet – obviously not the strongest WTA tournament tennis can offer, but still an excellent tournament for her (she didn’t loss a single set) for morale boosting and building up her form. Here in Paris, she won over Date-Krumm and Pironkova in second. Pironkova was playing some really nice tennis being very offensive and risking a lot, these are the reasons why Schiavone needed three sets. However, once when Schiavone upped her game and the Bulgarian felt a bit, everything was one sided in this match.

Varvara Lepchenko, on the other side, struggled in both rounds here in Paris in order to reach the third. She won over Pervak in three sets in first round, although she was a set down, while she also needed three sets in order to beat Jelena Jankovic, who is by the way, completely out of form and it will be a surprise if she holds top 30-40 position in the World (in case she continues like this, of course).  Lepchenko didn’t have major success at clay in her career, neither this season except quarterfinals of Madrid this season where she lost to Radwanska. On her round to the quarterfinals she won over Schiavone in three hard fought sets. After that tournament she continued in her old style, losing to Chakvetadze and U. Radwanska.

Reasons for big odds on Italian are known – she didn’t have brilliant season till now, she already lost to Lepchenko this season. But current form and trends are obvious, once Schiavone entered her form, previous results this season are less important.

Bet: Schiavone to win 2-0 in sets @2.26 with Pinnacle Sports