The third round of the French Open comes to a close on Saturday when the top half of both the singles draws are played out on the show courts and around the grounds at Roland Garros on a really good looking day of tennis.
When these halves of the draw are on show it means we get the three GOATs in the men’s draw on the same day, while there also a couple of talented women looking to enhance their chances of winning the event as well.
Day 6 Recap
Friday was a great day of tennis even if it did lack the shocks and surprises that we would have expected with seeded players meeting for the first time. The one real shock was the third seed exiting the women’s draw when Aryna Sabalenka bombed out in three sets. In the men’s draw there were comfortable wins for Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas but we did lose seeds in Casper Ruud and Fabio Fognini. Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka were among the big names to power through in the women’s draw.
We were back to an annoying day on Friday. Our first bet was voided when it was looking like a racing certainty to come in after a 7-5 first set between Kei Nishikori and Henri Laaksonen. The over 34.5 games looked likely to land from there but sadly the Swiss went down injured and pulled out. That was annoying but not nearly as annoying as the other bet which lost when we needed five games from Danielle Collins in the second set against Serena Williams. Things were looking good when she led 4-1 only to proceed to lose five games in a row and scupper our bet. Frustrating.
Philippe Chatrier Court
It is Elina Svitolina who will have the honour of getting the day session underway on Saturday. She meets the doubles specialist Barbora Krejcikova, who has done well to make it this far. Novak Djokovic is then back on Chatrier after being moved to Lenglen in the last round. The Serbian star goes up against Ricardas Berankis before the day session concludes with the defending women’s champion Iga Swiatek looking to move back into the second week of the tournament when she meets Anett Kontaveit. The night session sees Roger Federer playing behind closed doors against the competent German player Dominik Koepfer.
Suzanne Lenglen Court
It is actually the men who get us going on the second show court on Saturday when Diego Schwartzman looks to make the second week once again. He takes on Philipp Kohlschreiber who might have been capable of causing him problems a few years ago but perhaps not so much now. Two powerful Americans meet in the second match on court when Sofia Kenin takes on Jessica Pegula before Rafael Nadal continues his title defence. He meets the one remaining British player Cam Norrie before Coco Gauff closes the show. She faces fellow American player Jennifer Brady in another appealing game on this court.
Simonne Mathieu Court
The former US Open champion Sloane Stephens starts us off on this court when she takes on the talented Czech player Karolina Muchova before a couple of unseeded men battle it out to make the second week when Carlos Alcaraz takes on Jan-Lennard Struff. One of the better looking women’s matches are third on the court on Saturday when Elise Mertens meets Maria Sakkari before Matteo Berrettini gets the chance to round off the action when he takes on the Korean player Soonwoo Kwon.
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Best of the Rest
As was the case on Friday, there are only four matches on the outside courts on Saturday. They only have two seeded players in them as well and that is the exciting Italian youngster Jannik Sinner who will be looking to tee up a last 16 clash potentially with Rafael Nadal. The other seed on show on the day is Ons Jabeur who should have been playing Ash Barty here but will take on Magda Linette instead. Marco Cecchinato is the other eye catcher mixed in with all the doubles on the outside courts.
Men’s Betting
I’ll go with one in the men’s draw on Saturday. That comes straight off the bat as Diego Schwartzman takes on Philipp Kohlschreiber in a match I expect the Argentine to win but I’m not convinced he has it all his own way. To be fair to Schwartzman he has come through in straight sets so far but that isn’t usually his modus operandi in these Grand Slam events and although he has come through without dropping a set he had to fend off nine break points against Aljaz Bedene in the previous round.
Kohlschreiber isn’t getting any younger but he’s seen off two clean ball strikers in Fernando Verdasco and Aslan Karatsev so far this week and you don’t win those matches if you’re not hitting the ball well. You can get the German on a 7.5 games head start here so he only really needs to keep close order for this line to cover but if he wins a set it is hard to see how this one loses. I think there is enough in Kohlschreiber to stay within seven games of a Schwartzman who has had a terrible run on clay recently prior to this week.
Women’s Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets in the women’s draw. We begin in that all-American clash between the 2020 finalist Sofia Kenin and her compatriot Jessica Pegula and I like the outsider here. I say that because although Kenin made the final here last year, we have to acknowledge that her draw was kind – she never faced a seed until the semi-final and even then faced Petra Kvitova and you’d be hard pushed to say clay was her most effective surface. She was blown away when she played anyone good in the final. Kenin deserves credit for beating Jelena Ostapenko in the first round but things were a bit hairy there. Pegula has gone pretty well on the clay this year and I think she’s ready to make a further breakthrough after making the last eight of the Australian Open. Pegula won the only clay meeting between these two and was a set up in the only match of the four they have played that Kenin has won. It is Pegula for me here.
I’ll also go with Iga Swiatek to dominate the first set against Anett Kontaveit as well. The Polish defending champion is in some form at the minute. She has only dropped one game in the last three opening sets that she has played and she faced Karolina Pliskova in that time. I like Kontaveit. She gives it her all and won’t go without a fight but nobody is getting close to Swiatek at the minute and in each of her two defeats on clay this season the Estonian has lost a set 6-1. That has been the second and third set but the way Swiatek is blowing everyone away I think there is a good chance she wins this 6-0 6-1 or 6-2.
Tips
Back P.Kohlschreiber (+7.5 games) to beat D.Schwartzman for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Betway
Back J.Pegula to beat S.Kenin for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with BetVictor
Back her here:
Back I.Swiatek to win first set 6-0 6-1 or 6-2 for a 3/10 stake at 2.60 with Bet365
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