The first week of the French Open ends with the conclusion of the third round of the singles events at Roland Garros on Saturday when the top halves of both draws are played down to the last 16 stage on what could be another special day of tennis.
We’ve already seen many big names make their way into the second week of the tournament and on Saturday plenty more will look to do likewise over the course of the 16 matches on show plus the two which were unable to be finished on Friday.
Day 6 Recap
It was another extremely comfortable day for both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal who remain on course for a special semi-final in the second week. We did lose a big name in the women’s draw as Karolina Pliskova bit the dust, much to our annoyance with us being on her outright. There was better news for Jo Konta who breezed into the fourth round.
It was a good day for us betting wise too. We won our first bet when Pablo Carreno Busta pulled out against Benoit Paire when trailing 2-1 in sets and Garbine Muguruza made it a perfect day for the bets advised on Friday when she overpowered Elina Svitolina to come through in what was a real marker laid down performance.
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Philippe Chatrier Court
The defending women’s champion Simona Halep will get us started on the main court on Saturday. She takes on the marathon woman from the last round in Lesia Tsurenko before Stefanos Tsitsipas and Filip Krajinovic will conclude their heldover match. Novak Djokovic then takes centre stage when he takes on Salvatore Caruso before the all-French battle between Antoine Hoang and Gael Monfils takes place. It is up to the American pair of Serena Williams and Sofia Kenin to round off the action on this court.
Suzanne Lenglen Court
The mercurial talent of Fabio Fognini will grace the second court first up on Saturday when he meets the solid Spaniard, Roberto Bautista Agut with the women’s world number one following them as Naomi Osaka and her quest for a third straight Grand Slam runs into Katerina Siniakova. The 2018 beaten finalist Dominic Thiem is third onto the court. He faces the potentially tricky test of Pablo Cuevas before Ash Barty rounds off the action against Andrea Petkovic.
Simonne Mathieu Court
There are only the three singles matches on this court on Saturday but there are no shortage of stars on show on it. Alexander Zverev kicks things off when he meets Dusan Lajovic in a match which has the potential to be a lengthy one before Anna Blinkova takes on Madison Keys. Juan Martin del Potro will round off the singles play out on the new court when he goes up against the Australian player Jordan Thompson.
Best of the Rest
There isn’t a lot of singles action taking place on the outside courts on Saturday therefore there isn’t a lot of big names dotted about the place but there is the conclusion of the match between Stan Wawrinka and Grigor Dimitrov as well as Karen Khachanov, Monica Puig and the rising star Borna Coric in action among one or two others.
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Men’s Betting
I think there are a couple of outsiders worth supporting on Saturday with Dusan Lajovic the first of them. He goes up against Alexander Zverev who looked better in the previous round but I still can’t get his poor clay court campaign and his wretched Slam record out of my head. To be fair even if Zverev is on it he is no guarantee to win this. Lajovic has made the final in Monte Carlo this term and went five sets with the German here in the second round last year. The Serb is definitely playing better now. The German, well who knows. I’m aware it has been a tricky week so far though so I’ll play +5.5 games on Lajovic rather than chance him winning.
I’m very much behind Pablo Cuevas with the start he is getting against Dominic Thiem as well. These two went to a deciding set in Buenos Aires earlier in the year but in all four of their clay meetings Thiem has won by three games twice and four games once while Cuevas has a win over the Austrian here back in 2015 when he came through 76 75 67 75. Cuevas hasn’t played a lot of tennis this week with Edmund retiring relatively early in the previous round whereas Thiem could easily have gone the distance twice. I’ll take the Austrian with the start in this one.
Women’s Betting
Just the one interests me here where I’m going to take on Serena Williams. Her movement isn’t convincing me right now and I suspect she is ready to pull out of this thing. She might not need to though because here compatriot Sofia Kenin might complete the job for her. Kenin is a clean hitter of the tennis ball and if she gets Serena on the hop it could have all the dividends she is looking for. I’m not daft enough to take Serena on, I respect her greatness too much for that, but I do think there is a lot of juice in the 5/6 on Kenin with a 5.5 game start. One tight set should see us home here.
Tips
WON – Back D.Lajovic (+5.5 games) to beat A.Zverev for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
Back P.Cuevas (+6.5 games) to beat D.Thiem for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
Back them here:
WON – Back S.Kenin (+5.5 games) to beat S.Williams for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Coral
Back her here:
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