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Serena Williams Odds to Win U.S. Open Continue To Shift As She Keeps Winning

Serena Williams, of the United States, returns a shot to Anett Kontaveit, of Estonia, during the second round of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

The Bets are coming in on Serena as she continues to win.

Serena Williams advanced to the third round of the U.S. Open, her last grand slam appearance after her retirement announcement. After the win, Serena was asked by a reporter if she was surprised by her own impressive performance. The tennis star responded with “I’m just Serena.” And Serena is starting to get bettors pretty excited. Williams will face off against Australia’s Ajla Tomljanović, for her third-round match. The odds have been updated.

Serena is currently -170, while Tomljanovic is at +140 Via DraftKings Sportsbook.

Now let’s take a look at the big picture, her odds to actually win the US Open.

Via Caesars SportsbooK:

She’s also sitting at 14/1 at Caesars Sportsbook to win her seventh U.S. Open after residing at 50/1 ahead of the tournament’s start. Williams went down to 30/1 after winning her first match against Kovinic. At 14/1, Williams is only behind Iga Swiatek (+300), Caroline Garcia (10/1), Coco Gauff (10/1), Samsonova (11/1) and Sabalenka (13/1).

Serena is getting a lot more action on her than she did before the tournament started.

Before the U.S. Open began, Williams (5.5%) received the sixth-most money for U.S. Open women’s futures at Caesars Sportsbook—behind Swiatek at 25.0%, Gauff at 12.2%, Beatriz Haddad Maia at 7.5%, Garcia at 6.8% and Simona Halep at 6.7%. Williams was first in tickets at 8.6%, however she was just edging out Swiatek 8.4% and Gauff 8.0%.

Now Williams is first in tickets at 25.0% compared to Gauff in second 10.6%, as well as first in handle at 20.2% to Swiatek’s in second at 19.9%. Since the start of the U.S. Open to 9 a.m. ET Thursday morning, Williams has secured 47.3% of the tickets (next-closest Gauff at 12.4%) and 47.9% of the money (next-closest Swiatek at 13.0%)

The build up of bets is not surprising, because no one knew what to expect from her.

“It’s not surprising that up to the build-up that she didn’t get all this action because people didn’t know what to expect,” Pullen said. “She lost early on in Cincinnati and Toronto, so it’s not like she got to the final there and there was anticipation that she’d do well at the U.S. Open. So I think a lot of people were skeptical and were waiting to see a match or two before really getting involved with their future bets. Now that they’ve seen her win a couple of matches, the action is going to get bigger and bigger. She’s earned that respect for people to invest their money in her. The more she wins, the more people are going to bet her in her matches and to win the tournament.”

Serena Williams knows who she is and what she’s capable of, and that’s winning Major events.


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