Australian Open second women's semi-final preview and free tip

Free tennis tips, best bets and analysis for day 11 of the Australian Open.

When to watch

Eurosport 1, 4.30am Thursday

Best bets

Garbine Muguruza to beat Simona Halep
1pt 23-17 RedZone
Back this tip with bet365

Garbine Muguruza +3.5 games v Simona Halep
1pt 4-6BoyleSports

Semi-final preview

It was pretty much one-way traffic with punters backing Simona Halep to reach the final of the Australian Open with a victory over Garbine Muguruza in the wake of the Romanian's 6-1 6-1 quarter-final trouncing of Anett Kontaveit on Wednesday.

But with Muguruza also back playing at or near her peak on hard courts after a couple of barren campaigns, Halep is no good thing to progress, with or without legendary Australian coach Darren Cahill in her corner.

One thing's certain: the quality does not get much better than this. Both women have tasted title success at Wimbledon and at the French Open and both are chasing a first hard-court major singles crown.

Halep, of course, went all the way on the London grass courts last summer. But this current fine run of form is merely an extension of that Wimbledon run, with the possibility that she's even happier with Cahill back in tow.

Muguruza, in contrast, hit some career lows in 2018 and 2019 and the Spaniard was powerless to live with her peers on any terrain.

But in the short close-season nearing the end of 2019, the Caracas-born world number 32, who topped the WTA rankings in September 17, embarked on a number of personal challenges such as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in November and the confidence-building plan seems to be working.

At her best, when timing the ball well, Muguruza is a tremendous hard-court player and judging by her efforts in recent weeks, she has every chance of nailing a career Grand Slam by winning all four major singles tournaments.

Of course, Halep is also not without a chance of doing the same, but this semi-final test could be more troublesome than some early punters who have nailed their colours to the fourth seed's mast may think.

Muguruza leads their personal series 3-2 and it was no surprise that Halep won their latest clash at the 2018 French Open when her opponent was out of sorts.

Muguruza is worth backing to upset her seeded opponent and a handicap start of 3.5 games for the outsider also looks generous.

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