Venus Williams Favourite For The Australian Open Title As Sister Serena Williams Loses To Elena Dementieva

In what is a case of Bookmakers ignoring the rankings at this year's Australian Open, number six seeded Venus Williams has now taken the top spot amongst the favourites with the bookies for the Women's Singles Title.The credit for it should be given to Elena Dementieva of Russia, who took out second seeded Serena Williams in straight sets 6-3,6-1 in the semi finals of the Sydney International tennis tournament on Thursday.With this loss, the bookmakers must have got a bit shaken up and the pre tournament favourite had her odds drifting. Serena Williams is still considered equal by many UK bookmakers with here sister Venus in the betting race but can be backed at 10/3 with Paddy Power and Stan James. Betfair has her going at the best odds of 19/5.Stan James go 10/3 about Serena and their spokesman Charlie McCann said: "It is possible that Williams was still feeling the effects of her tough quarter final success over Caroline Wozniacki but 6-3, 6-1 is a good hiding in anyone's language.Venus Williams is leading the betting odds by a small margin and the best deal on her is available at Betfair at 39/10. Other bookmakers seem to back Venus over Serena now and offer 11/4 at Blue Square and William Hill.Elena Dementieva has been getting a lot of betting ever since her win over Serena and is now being considered the best bet by many experts.However, Venus Williams was in no mood to give the credit to the Russian player."I gave it away more than anything," said Williams. "I made a lot of errors and made her look like a champ, really. I just pretty much gave her the match."Odds on Dementieva have been shortening after her win and she is now available at best price of 10/1 with Betfred while Betfair is going at 11/1.Seems like pretty good odds to back her as he faces Dinara Safina in the finals of the Sydney event on Friday and if she wins then we can expect the odds to get even shorter.Same goes for Dinara Safina who is neck to neck with Dementieva in the betting at 10/1 with Betfred.Safina defeated Ai Sugiyama of Japan 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the semi finals of the Sydney event.World number one Jelena Jankovic is the third favourite with the bookies and is best available at 42/5 with Betfair.Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, who has been seeded fifth is sixth in the bookies list and can be backed at 11/1 with Stan James.