The second day of the French Open sees the first round of the singles draws continuing at Roland Garros on Monday on what should be a high quality day of tennis with the amount of stars on show around the grounds.
After seeing Roger Federer on Sunday, the likes of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Caroline WOzniacki and Serena Williams are on what looks like a loaded schedule, one which will have a decent British flavour to it too.
Day 1 Recap
It was a decent day for the majority of the seeded players with straightforward victories for Roger Federer, Sloane Stephens, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Karolina Pliskova and David Goffin among others but there was a major shock when Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber was battered in a little over an hour on the main court. Diego Schwartzman and Garbine Muguruza came through deciding sets.
It was an up and down day for us on the betting front with Laslo Djere comfortably seeing off Albert Ramos-Vinolas in straight sets but sadly Venus Williams surrendered a 3-1 lead with points for a double break in the second set to lose the set 6-3 when all we needed was five games from Venus for a second winner.
Philippe Chatrier Court
Caroline Wozniacki is the player who is given the green light to open the show on the main court on Monday. She faces off against Veronika Kudermetova before the defending men’s champion gets his title defence underway as Rafael Nadal takes on Yannick Hanfmann. The third match of the day on Chatrier could be a cracker as Novak Djokovic begins his quest to hold all four Grand Slams at the same time when he takes on the dangerous youngster Hubert Hurkacz. The action closes out with Serena Williams beginning her tilt at the title when she takes on Vitalia Diatchenko for a place in the second round.
Suzanne Lenglen Court
The form horse on the women’s side of the draw begins the action on the second court when Kiki Bertens takes on Pauline Parmentier before Australian Open finalist Petra Kvitova faces Sorana Cirstea. The French crowds will be out in force for the third game on show on this court when Jo-Wilfried Tsonga takes on the heavy handed German player Peter Gojowczyk before the 2018 finalist Dominic Thiem is in action against the American wildcard Tommy Paul.
Simonne Mathieu Court
French ace Alize Cornet gets the action started on the new court when she goes up against Viktoria Kuzmova before another popular French player Richard Gasquet takes to the clay to go up against Mischa Zverev. Former champion Stan Wawrinka is third onto the court when he faces the lowly ranked Jozef Kovalik before two seasoned campaigners round off the show when Barbora Strycova takes on Sam Stosur in a decent enough looking match for the first round.
Best of the Rest
There are plenty of seeded players on show around the grounds for those not interested in the action on the main courts. Julia Goerges, Kyle Edmund, Ash Barty and Borna Coric are all on Court 1 while Daniil Medvedev and Bianca Andreescu are out on Court 14. Jo Konta, Donna Vekic, Elise Mertens, Gilles Simon, Denis Shapovalov, Nikoloz Basilashvili and Guido Pella are just some of the other seeded players in first round competition on the minor courts on Monday.
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Men’s Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of the day in the men’s draw where Daniil Medvedev could be vulnerable against Pierre-Hugues Herbert. The doubles specialist will have the crowd on his side in this match and takes on a talented Russian but one who has been injured in recent times and given his lack of form in this tournament in the past could be forgiven for sacking this one off and focusing on getting his body in good spirits for the grass court season where he should be a lot more of a force. Herbert saw his doubles partner win on Sunday and he’ll be motivated to follow him into the second round. He looks a fair amount of value to me here.
Nikoloz Basilashvili had a decent prep week in Lyon last week and I think he can follow that up with a confident win over Juan Londero. To be fair to the Argentine he is far from the worst on clay but I’ve got to think that the Georgian will have enough on this stage. He took care of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on his way to a narrow semi-final defeat to Felix Auger-Aliassime last week and also has a win over Laslo Djere on his record this season on clay. Londero is relatively unexposed at Grand Slam level and so I’m with Basil to get this one won inside four sets.
Women’s Betting
Jo Konta has made a couple of finals over the course of this clay court season already when she lost out in the title showdown in Rabat and Rome and I expect her to begin her quest for this title in some style when she goes up against Antonia Lottner in the first round on Monday. Lottner has done well to qualify for this tournament but there is a good gulf in class between these two. Often we see Konta struggling into a Grand Slam but she must be bubbling with confidence going into this one. I fancy she will cover 5.5 games.
Tips
WON – Back P-H.Herbert to beat D.Medvedev for a 3/10 stake at 3.50 with Sky Bet
Back N.Basilashvili (-1.5 sets) to beat J.Londero for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Betfair
Back him here:
Back J.Konta (-5.5 games) to beat A.Lottner for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Coral
Back her here:
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