The French Open is quite unique in that unlike the other three Grand Slams it begins on a Sunday and so we have the start of the first round to enjoy with our roast dinner this Sunday.
It might be very early in the piece but we have some real star names on show on Sunday including the top women’s seed Angelique Kerber and a dark horse for the men’s draw in Dominic Thiem so there is much to look forward to on what is a truncated but still fairly busy opening day of the event.
Philippe Chatrier Court
The opening match of the tournament on the main court sees the return to action of Petra Kvitova. The Czech star will be playing her first match of the year after her terrible stabbing incident sidelined her until now. She takes on Julia Boserup before the tie of the first round in the women’s draw which sees Kerber facing Ekaterina Makarova.
Grigor Dimitrov is the first male seed on the show court on Sunday when he faces the local man Stephane Robert before the action concludes with an all-French tussle between the exciting Lucas Pouille and Julien Benneteau.
Suzanne Lenglen Court
It is a Frenchman who begins things on the second show court as Adrian Mannarino gets his campaign underway. He faces Horacio Zeballos of Argentina before Svetlana Kuznetsova takes on Christina McHale.
An interesting men’s match follows that as Dominic Thiem goes up against the talented Bernard Tomic before the court concludes with Venus Williams taking on China’s Qiang Wang.
Court 1
Gilles Muller is local enough to get plenty of support first up on this court. He faces Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and then Quentin Halys takes on Marco Trungelliti before another French woman is on court as Oceane Dodin meets Camila Giorgi in a fiery looking encounter. Lara Arruabarrena takes on Dominika Cibulkova in the final match on this court.
Best of the Rest
If you have a ground pass on Sunday you will still see some decent tennis. The Olympic champion Monica Puig is in action on Court 2 against Roberta Vinci while there are three seeds in action on Court 3 including big Ivo Karlovic. Pablo Carrena Busto is in action out on Court 14 too.
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Betting
I’m going to take a quiet start to the tournament on Sunday. I usually look to ease my way into these Grand Slams and this is no different. As ever I’m reluctant to take the big players this early because they all have to cover big handicaps when they are just easing themselves into the event.
In the men’s draw I fancy it will be a short stint in Paris for Dan Evans. He hasn’t got a good clay court record and I expect his lack of form and confidence on the dirt to be exposed by Tommy Robredo. It is probably fair to suggest that Robredo would prefer a hard court too but he has had success on the clay and he should have too much for Evans.
While I don’t like to take advantage of someone’s misfortune Petra Kvitova simply has to be taken on against Julia Boserup. We all know what has gone on with Kvitova and it is fantastic to see her back and back so soon but it would only be natural for her to need a couple of tournaments to get up to speed. Boserup won’t pull up any trees but at least she has been active and that can count here.
Tips
WON – Back T.Robredo (-1.5 sets) to beat D.Evans for a 4/10 stake at 2.25 with Betfair
Back him here:
Back J.Boserup to beat P.Kvitova for a 3/10 stake at 4.00 with Coral
Back her here:
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