Zvonareva to gain revenge on Stosur to reach US Open semis

Vera Zvonareva may have lost her last seven meetings with Sam Stosur, including two this year, but the Russian can gain a measure of revenge at the US Open by progressing into the semi finals.

Zvonareva has improved in the last two matches with Stosur by taking the encounters to a third set and has looked more of a complete hard-court player this year, most notably when seeing off the dangerous Sabine Lisicki in the fourth round.

One of her problems against Stosur in the past has been dealing with her heavy spin, but if the number two seed can find a solution to this problem with her service returns, she is the value bet in the US Open odds at 8/11.

Given the previous head-to-head record, it may be a surprise that Australian Stosur is the slight underdog at 11/10.

However, she has not coped well with pressure in previous Grand Slams and has already been pushed hard to reach the quarter finals, which is likely to have taken its toll.

Stosur has come through marathon three-setters Nadia Petrova and Maria Kirlienko in the past two rounds, but beating a third Russian may be too much to ask.

Today’s other women’s quarter final is a bit of an unknown, as it is a surprise that both Angelique Kerber and Flavia Pennetta have reached this stage.

Kerber is highly regarded in Germany and is 12/5 to reach a first Grand Slam semi final.

However, all of her wins so far have been off the radar and it remains to be seen how she will fare when switched to a show court.

Pennetta has been excellent in defence to beat Maria Sharapova and Shuai Peng and should be able to enforce a more attacking strategy against Kerber.

This is the Italian’s third Grand Slam quarter final and her experience also helps make her the safer selection to triumph at 1/3.