The second day of action at the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris sees the first round of the tournament continuing in conditions which are expected to be pretty extreme once again as the Autumn staging of the event continues.
Conditions were visibly tough on the first day on Sunday and the likes of Dominic Thiem, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and Elina Svitolina are among those looking to get the better of them on Monday and make it through to the next stage.
Day 1 Recap
There was a mixture of comfortable wins and some tight clashes on the opening day of the tournament on Sunday. Alexander Zverev, Diego Schwartzman and Stan Wawrinka cruised through while Kei Nishikori came through in five sets. In the women’s draw the number one seed Simona Halep waltzed through as did Victoria Azarenka but there were shock defeats for Jo Konta and Anett Kontaveit among others. David Goffin was the surprise casualty in the men’s draw.
It was an up and down day for us betting wise in the opening day of the tournament. It started very well when Marco Cecchinato cruised to victory against an undergunned Alex de Minaur but that profit was wiped out when Jo Konta offered nothing in defeat to Coco Gauff so we began the tournament with a slight loss, something we’ll be looking to wipe out on Monday and get back into the black.
Philippe Chatrier Court
Petra Kvitova is one of surprisingly few elite names in action in the women’s draw on Monday and she gets play underway on the main court when she meets Oceane Dodin for a place in the second round. We then get arguably the pick of the matches in the first round of the men’s draw as the current US Open champion Dominic Thiem takes on a former holder of that title on Marin Cilic. Serena Williams begins her latest quest to equal the record for Grand Slam wins when she meets her fellow American player Kristie Ahn. The final match of the day sees the man who near enough owns Roland Garros in action when Rafael Nadal takes on Egor Gerasimov.
Suzanne Lenglen Court
Kiki Bertens has been in good form in 2020 and she gets the chance to open up the show on the second court when she faces off against Katarina Zavatska before the Strasbourg champion Elina Svitolina looks to continue her good form when she meets Varvara Gracheva for a place in the next round. A couple of popular men’s matches round off the schedule on this court on Monday when the leading home hope Gael Monfils takes on the enigma of Alexander Bublik before Daniil Medvedev begins his quest for a maiden Grand Slam title when he takes on Marton Fucsovics.
Simonne Mathieu Court
The entertaining Fabio Fognini is the first big name on show on the other main court on Monday. He has a first round clash with Mikhail Kukushkin to negotiate before the much fancied Garbine Muguruza steps onto the court to go up against Tamara Zidansek. Karen Khachanov will be the centre of attention in the third match on this court on Monday. He takes on the lowly ranked Polish player Kamil Majchrzak before the day is finished off with the second women’s match of the day when Alize Cornet takes on the wildcard and countrywoman Chloe Paquet.
Best of the Rest
There are plenty of seeded players dotted around the grounds on Monday, all of whom will be hoping that the weather stays good so they can get their matches in. Among those on show are Angelique Kerber, the beaten finalist last year in Marketa Vondrousova, Madison Keys, Pablo Carreno Busta, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Karolina Muchova, Casper Ruud and Hubert Hurkacz so there is a lot to enjoy throughout the day on a wide number of courts.
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Men’s Betting
I’ll go with one in the men’s draw on Monday and we have to wait until the final match on Court 13 for it to take place when Hubert Hurkacz goes up against Tennys Sandgren. We saw on Sunday that you need plenty of power to get the ball through these courts so the extra power that the Polish youngster has could be useful here. I think he is the better player of the two on all surfaces but the gap in their ability is probably widest on the dirt.
That was evidence a couple of years ago when they met here and Hurkacz won in four sets. I’m expecting something similar from him here especially as he showed he was in decent nick coming in here when he beat Andrey Rublev in Rome before taking Diego Schwartzman to a final set. That form has already been franked nicely and with these conditions favouring Hurkacz I’m expecting him to cover 3.5 games here.
Women’s Betting
I’ll go with one in the women’s draw as well which is in the clash between the two Russian players where I fancy Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to beat the veteran Svetlana Kuznetsova. Kuznetsova won this title in 2009 but I’ve never really thought she excels on clay courts and I’m not surprised that tournament is one of just three titles she has won on the dirt in her career. Pavlyuchenkova has also won a couple of titles on the clay but I think she’s at the stage in her tennis where she will be more mobile and more powerful than Kuznetsova.
Neither woman comes in here in fantastic form on the clay so I wouldn’t want to be on Kuznetsova at odds on. I don’t think the conditions suit her at all. There is only a few places between these two in the world rankings so there really isn’t much of an advantage either way in the numbers. That leaves me to think that the younger woman will come through here and so I’ll take Pavlyuchenkova at odds against in this one.
Tips
Back H.Hurkacz (-3.5 games) to beat T.Sandgren for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
WON – Back A.Pavlyuchenkova to beat S.Kuznetsova for a 3/10 stake at 2.38 with BetVictor
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