in Tennis Free Picks

The quarterfinal round of the Dubai Open on Thursday saw all the seeds advance to the semifinal round. Justine Henin did not break stride against Eleni Daniilidou, defeating her 6-0, 6-2, while Svetlana Kuznetsova followed almost as comfortably with her 6-3, 6-4 victory over Patty Schnyder.

In the bottom half of the draw, Amelie Mauresmo struggled against Daniela Hantuchova, finally clinching the victory in three sets 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, while Jelena Jankovic sealed her place in the semifinals with a 7-6(3), 6-2 win against Martina Hingis.

With the semifinals only a few hours away, betting on the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Semifinal round is in full swing at BetUS.com. Therefore, let’s get right to it and look at the tennis odds shaping up for the head-to-heads.

Prediction: Amelie Mauresmo, the second seed at the Dubai Women’s Open, advanced to the semifinals after narrowly beating Daniela Hantuchova 6-3 3-6 6-4. Mauresmo took 2 hours and 21 minutes to defeat Hantuchova, suggesting Mauresmo is not in her best form.

Moreover, following the match Mauresmo admitted her frustrations with her performance, and even went so far as to claim that she fell asleep during the second set, allowing Hantuchova to run off with it, and almost the match! Should Mauresmo allow herself the luxury of a little nap against Jelena Jankovic, the fifth seed will not be as charitable as Hantuchova was and will be only too happy to take advantage of her daydreaming!

In fact, at the quarterfinals of the 2007 Sydney Final, Jankovic did just that, after taking the first set in a close 7-5, Jankovic took the second in a resounding 6-0 to the astonishment of Mauresmo! Did she doze-off then as well?

Jelena Jankovic is a remarkable young player on the Tour. Although Jankovic trails 4-1 in their head-to-heads, the most recent victory went her way at the quarterfinals of the 2007 Sydney Final.

Mauresmo’s lack of focus is concerning, and considering she is the favorite in this matchup, she will have to do better than the average performance that has managed to bring her this far.

Pick: Jelena Jankovic in two sets.

Prediction: Dubai seems to suit the top seed, and defending champion, Justine Henin very well. With her victory over Eleni Daniilidou, Henin pushed her woman’s Dubai Open record-winning streak to 14 matches. With her semifinal match against Svetlana Kuznetsova, coming up on Friday, February 22, she is only a few hours from pushing that record to 15-0.

Justine Henin is the favorite and, with a 12-1 lead in head-to-heads over Kuznetsova, it seems unlikely that she will face any difficulty against the World No.5 and third seed.

Pick: Henin in straight sets.

Federer might be winning everything these days, but with online sports betting in the BetUS.com to earn cold, hard cash!

Nila Amerova is a freelance sports writer and regular contributor to the BetUS.com Locker Room.