The second round of the French Open tennis tournament concludes at Roland Garros in Paris on Thursday as the competition begins to really hot up in the Parisian heat. By the end of Day 5 we will be down to the last 32 in the men’s and women’s draw.
Day 4 Recap
The majority of the big names made it through a tricky looking day on Wednesday although we did lose some stars. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Petra Kvitova and Dominika Cibulkova all bit the dust but the likes of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Garbine Muguruza, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Venus Williams all made it through.
It was yet another frustrating day for us on the betting front with the first two bets landing in the women’s matches but we couldn’t get anything from the men so we ended up with our first significant loss of the tournament which we’ll be aiming to claw back on Thursday.
Philippe Chatrier Court
We set off for Day 5 with a French interest as Alize Cornet takes on Barbora Strycova before the former champion Stan Wawrinka takes to the court to take on the dangerous Alexandr Dolgopolov.
The exciting French star Gael Monfils gets centre billing as the third match on the main court when he plays the Brazilian player Thiago Monteiro before the action on the show court concludes with the second seed Karolina Pliskova taking on Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Suzanne Lenglen Court
Agnieszka Radwanska is first up on the other show court. She faces the Belgian player Alison Van Uytvanck. The world number one Andy Murray continues his quest for a first French Open title after that when he faces a Martin Klizan whom it is fair to say he isn’t a fan of.
Simona Halep is out on this court in this round and she’s third on when she takes on the potentially tricky Tatjana Maria before the final match sees Richard Gasquet looking to give the home crowds something to cheer when he faces Victor Estrella Burgos.
Court 1
Former US Open champion Marin Cilic opens proceedings on this course with a clash against Konstantin Kravchuk of Russia before Kei Nishikori takes on the home man Jeremy Chardy in what could be an interesting match. There is an all-French clash after that as Caroline Garcia takes on Chloe Paquet and then Carina Witthoeft and Pauline Parmentier meet to round off the action.
Court 2
Elina Svitolina is first onto the court here. She takes on last year’s quarter finalist Tsvetana Pironkova. They are followed by Nicolas Almagro and Juan Martin del Potro who should produce a good watch. Anastasija Sevastova then meets Eugenie Bouchard before the final match sees Fernando Verdasco taking on Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
Best of the Rest
There are still some decent stars on show around the grounds on Thursday. David Ferrer, Nick Kyrgios, Carla Suarez Navarro, Madison Keys, John Isner and Tomas Berdych are just some of the seeded players mixed in with the doubles action on the lesser courts.
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Betting
I like three on Thursday, one from the men and two from the women. In the men’s draw I’m expecting a comfortable passage through for Fernando Verdasco. This might not be the best tournament for the Spaniard but he hit the ball so well against Alexander Zverev in the first round and takes on the doubles specialist who could well be reeling from his exit in that tournament. Pierre-Hugues Herbert came through the first round but he didn’t play that well. These two met in Indian Wells earlier in the season when Verdasco won in straight sets and he can do the same here.
Moving over to the women and I’m with Jo Konta’s conqueror Su-Wei Hsieh in her match against Taylor Townsend. Admittedly Hsieh is going to have to overcome the inevitable comedown of playing on the main court and then getting shoved on the outside ones but Townsend’s first round win was her first on clay this year and even then it was given to her by a poor opponent. Anything close to the level she showed against Konta should see Hsieh having too much here.
It was hard not to be impressed by the clean hitting of Magdalena Rybarikova in her win over Coco Vandeweghe in the first round and I fancy she’ll go in again here. In fairness Mariana Duque Marino did very well to outlast Irina Begu in the first round but 10 double faults have to be a concern. She won’t have it easy on her serve here and if the Slovak can eat up that serve she should come through this one.
Tips
Back F.Verdasco to beat P-H.Herbert 3-0 for a 3/10 stake at 2.63 with Skybet
Back him here:
WON – Back S-W.Hsieh to beat T.Townsend for a 4/10 stake at 2.50 with Paddy Power
Back her here:
Back M.Rybarikova to beat M.Duque Marino for a 4/10 stake at 2.30 with Bet365
Back her here:
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