Analysis for Henin-Sharapova (Australian Open)

Head-to-head record 6:2

Today, we are going to try a crazy bet against the “unbeatable” Henin. The reasons for this pick follow: Sharapova is an offensive baseliner who feels great on the fast surface in Melbourne. She has been playing enormously well in all previous round and it looks she is playing at her very top level. She is noted for having an excellent double-handed backhand and serves, particularly for the power and placement of these shots. She has also very good forehand. Being an offensive player, Sharapova is usually able to overpower her opponents or keep them on the run with sharp angles from the baseline, especially on fast surfaces. She has played some really tough opponents here but demolished all of them. Her self-confidence must be high and if she is about to beat Henin at one time, we think it will be today. We remember their last match in the finals of 2007 WTA tennis championship and it was one of the best WTA matches we have ever seen. Sharapova lost to Henin 5-7 7-5 6-3 in a dramatic match that lasted 3 hours and 24 minutes. Her performance at the tournament was considered an excellent end to a modest season for Sharapova. She continue in impressive performances this year as well - After beating Chakvetadze in an exhibition match in Singapore, Sharapova reached the final of the J B Group Classic exhibition event, where she lost to Venus Williams in the final. In Melbourne, she has been handed a tough draw (after facing Jelena Kostanic Tosic in the first round, she faced rejuvenated former world number one Lindsay Davenport in the second round, and 2 Russians (Vesnina and Dementieva) in the third and fourth round). It would be a wasting of time to bless Justine Henin. She is one of the best female players ever born but her YTD results hasn’t been so impressive so far. She lost the set to both Ivanovic and Kuznetsova in Sydney and played some relatively tight matches in Melbourne as well despite of a very friendly draw (Kanepi, Poutchkova, Schiavone, Hsieh). Now, she will next play Maria Sharapova, against whom she has a 6-2 win-loss record, but as we said, Sharapova plays at her best and we think that huge odds are worth trying for a small amount. We think that Sharapova´s odds should be somewhere around 2.3 in this match.