The clay court season comes to an end over the next couple of weeks when the stars of the tennis world head to Roland Garros in Paris for the French Open, the culmination of a strong stretch of tournaments on the dirt.
Novak Djokovic landed this title last year to continue his bid for the calendar Grand Slam and unlike in Australia earlier in the year, he is allowed to attempt to defend his title. Most of the top players will be out to oppose him in what feels like a wide open renewal.
Recent Winners
2021 – Novak Djokovic
2020 – Rafael Nadal
2019 – Rafael Nadal
2018 – Rafael Nadal
2017 – Rafael Nadal
2016 – Novak Djokovic
2015 – Stan Wawrinka
2014 – Rafael Nadal
2013 – Rafael Nadal
2012 – Rafael Nadal
The Format
There are 128 players in the draw which has been determined prior to the event beginning and the competition is a straight knockout over the best of five sets like the other Grand Slams. The new rule that has been blanketed across all Grand Slams begins at this tournament where any deciding set which reaches 6-6 will be settled by a 10-point match tiebreak.
Top Quarter
As the defending champion and more importantly still the world number one Novak Djokovic is the number one seed this week and he will be the main man in the top quarter. His potential quarter final opponent is a certain Rafael Nadal though so the Serb is going to have his work cut out. With those two in this quarter it is probably the one all the seeds wanted to avoid. Unfortunately for Botip van de Zandschulp, Reilly Opelka, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Diego Schwartzman, Grigor Dimitrov and Jenson Brooksby their luck is out.
There are some household names and rising stars in this quarter who also probably wish they had some luck and weren’t. They include the 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka while Filip Krajinovic, Fabio Fognini, Aslan Karatsev, Borna Coric and Pablo Cuevas are all in this section with pretty decent clay court pedigrees. Marcos Giron, Jaume Munar, Jordan Thompson and the home wildcard Corentin Moutet are others hoping for a decent week.
Second Quarter
Alexander Zverev will head up the seeding list in the second quarter this week. The German hasn’t got his hands on a Grand Slam yet so he’ll be extra motivated to get the job done here but he is in the same quarter as the rising superstar Carlos Alcaraz which is certainly less than ideal. This probably isn’t a quarter anyone else would want to be in either but the likes of Sebastian Korda, Karen Khachanov, Lyon winner Cameron Norrie, Indian Wells champion Taylor Fritz, John Isner and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina are the other seeds in the section.
The former US Open champion Dominic Thiem is the headline name in the unseeded part of the quarter. The Austrian is looking to work his way back from injury and might well be a title contender here in 12 months but you would imagine a run of that kind will be beyond him this early in his comeback. French veteran Richard Gasquet is also in this section as are Albert Ramos-Vinolas, Lloyd Harris, John Millman and Brandon Nakashima who will all be looking for decent runs here.
Third Quarter
Stefanos Tsitsipas should be the defending champion here having surrendered a two set lead in the final last year but he’ll be looking to go one better this time around from the third quarter. His quarter final opponent is slated to be Casper Ruud but as with the other quarters there will be six seeds looking to say something about that. They are British number two Dan Evans, Alex de Minaur, Denis Shapovalov, Hubert Hurkacz, Frances Tiafoe and Lorenzo Sonego.
There are some eye catching unseeded names in this draw with the pick of them probably being the former top 10 player David Goffin. This is the quarter where the emotions could run high because the career of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will come to an end once he is knocked out of this tournament. Ugo Humbert, former semi-finalist Marco Cecchinato, Holger Rune, Lucas Pouille and Lorenzo Musetti are some of the other players who will want to catch the eye here.
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Bottom Quarter
The two leading Russian players in the field head up the bottom quarter this week and when you consider that they won’t be lining up at Wimbledon next month this is probably a big couple of weeks for Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev. Miomir Kecmanovic, Marin Cilic, Pablo Carreno Busta, Jannik Sinner, Nikoloz Basilashvili and Tommy Paul are the other six seeds in this quarter who will be showing no sentiment or sympathy to the Russian pair.
Two French veterans will keep the crowds interested in the early stages this week in Adrian Mannarino and Benoit Paire while Cristian Garin could be a sleeper on his favourite surface. Gilles Simon is another home player who will be looking to show his worth, while the enigmatic Alexander Bublik is one of a few players who could entertain the crowds. Steve Johnson and Marton Fucsovics are a couple of other well-known names.
Betting
Clearly the best way to bet this tournament is to focus our each way bets on the bottom half. The top half looks an absolute minefield but the one thing with that top half being loaded like it is means that we know only one of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz is going to make the final. That is four potential tournament winners and only one will make the final and whoever it is will have had a tough run to get there.
That leads to me betting in the other half of the draw where Stefanos Tsitsipas is the main runner but at five times the price Casper Ruud, the Geneva champion, could be worth siding with. While it isn’t ideal that he went the distance in Geneva from a fitness point of view, his confidence should be sky high and that is no bad thing. He will know he has a great draw and will look to take advantage of it here. I think the 22/1 that he wins the tournament is a shade on the big side.
The same can be said of Miomir Kecmanovic, the Serbian player who had a wonderful sunshine swing in Indian Wells and in Miami and although his results on the clay haven’t been as strong, he has had some tough draws. In the four clay court tournaments he has lost in this year he has run into Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Diego Schwartzman and Botip van de Zandschulp. The latter is the only match he’d have been a favourite in. Kecmanovic is in the quarter where Medvedev is but it is no secret isn’t the strongest on clay anyway and he is only just coming back from injury as well as the fallout of Russian players in tennis at the minute. The Serb can take advantage of that and give us a decent run at 80/1.
Tips
Back C.Ruud to win French Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 23.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
Back M.Kecmanovic to win French Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with BetVictor (1/2 1-2)
Back him here:
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