Swedish Open success gets Serena back to winning ways

Serena Williams’ fourth-round defeat to Sabine Lisicki threw the Women’s Wimbledon Championships wide open, and left many questioning if the world number one’s era of dominance was coming to an end.

But the 31-year-old is favourite at 10/11 to win a fifth US Open title, after bouncing back from the loss in London to cruise to the Swedish Open title.

Serena didn’t face a player ranked inside the top 20 in that tournament, but a return to winning ways will be a morale booster for the 31-year-old ahead of the final Slam of the year.

The American won her very first Major title here way back in 1999, beating Martina Hingis, and has since claimed three further US Open titles, including last year’s three-set victory over Victoria Azarenka.

Williams also reached the final in 2011 – losing out to Sam Stosur – and is one of only two currently active players to reach the final on more than one occasion – the other being Venus Williams.

This year’s Wimbledon final between Marion Bartoli and Lisicki continued the current unpredictable nature of women’s tennis, with Williams seemingly the one constant threat before that surprise SW19 exit.

Azarenka is second favourite at 7/2, but after winning the Australian Open and reaching the last-four in France, had to withdraw in the second round at Wimbledon after a recurrence of a troublesome knee injury.

Maria Sharapova won this title in her only final appearance here in 2006 but has struggled in the competition since then.

A semi-final place last year was the first time the Russian had gone beyond the fourth round since that win over Justine Henin, and the 26-year-old is 11/2 to win a second US Open title.

Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli is 50/1 for a second successive win in the Big Four.

The price reflects the French woman’s poor record in the US, failing progress past the fourth round in 10 attempts before reaching the quarter-finals last year.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing