Naomi Osaka v Angelique Kerber: Prediction, Tips and Odds

The women's singles tennis at this year's Olympics features a star-studded line-up, with top seed Iga Swiatek leading the way at the venue where she won the French Open earlier this year.

Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini and Jessica Pegula will also be representing their countries in the event as the world's best battle it out for gold in Paris.

The first round gets underway on Saturday and there is an intriguing clash on the cards as big names Naomi Osaka and Angelique Kerber prepare to face off.

Japan's Osaka is involved as a result of an ITF entry, while veteran German Kerber has been given a protected ranking for the event, which will be the final one of her career.

The winner of the first-round battle will face either 17th seed and home talent Caroline Garcia or Jaqueline Cristian of Romania in the second round and the match could be closer than the betting suggests, with Osaka the 3/10 favourite to prevail.

Naomi Osaka v Angelique Kerber betting tips and predictions

Naomi Osaka to win 2-1 - 11/4

Neither of these players are in blistering form, nor are they clay-court specialists, but it is understandable why punters might want to get behind Japan's Osaka rather than Germany's Kerber.

Kerber, who turned 36 at the start of the year, has lost 14 of her 21 matches on the WTA Tour this year and comes into the Olympics in pretty poor form.

She lost her opening matches at each of the French Open, the Berlin Open, the Bad Homburg Open and Wimbledon and it is hard to make a case for her winning this match.

As for Osaka, after missing a season when she had her first child last year, she at least has a positive win record with 16 wins from 29 matches this year.

And, although she was a second-round casualty, she showed signs of promise at this exact venue at the French Open back in May.

She was the only player to take a set off Swiatek in the Pole's ruthless pursuit of the French Open title, hammering her 6-1 in the second set of their encounter.

That suggested she can be a danger on clay and she looks well-equipped to win this match.

That said Kerber leads the head-to-head 4-2 and should perform better than in recent events with the weight of her nation behind her, so she could pick up a set in defeat.

Three sets in match - 6/4

For punters who do not want to back either player, a wager on this match to go the distance to three sets could be appealing.

Neither player has the form behind them to suggest this will be a clean sweep and three of Osaka's previous four matches in all competitions featured a total of three sets.

That included a three-set battle with Diane Parry in the first round of Wimbledon earlier this month and neither player should fold early.

Osaka is certainly the better pick when it comes to the match markets, but the 3/10 quoted for her to win this game could be underestimating Kerber, who was a silver medallist in the women's singles tennis at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

These two players have met six times on the WTA tour and, while Osaka won their last meeting 6-2 6-3, their encounter beforehand in Singapore in 2018 went to three sets with Kerber coming out on top 6-4 5-7 6-4.

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Naomi Osaka v Angelique Kerber odds

Naomi Osaka - 3/10
Angelique Kerber - 5/2

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This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.