The quarter finals of the French Open will be completed on the Philippe Chatrier Court at Roland Garros on Wednesday when the last three matches will be played after news broke on Tuesday that defending champion Novak Djokovic was forced to pull out.
That means we only have one quarter final for the men on Wednesday and two for the women. Both men on show will have seen a huge window open for themselves while the four women will all think they can win this thing.
Day 10 Recap
It was a fairly routine day for the defending champion Iga Swiatek and the Australian Open winner Jannik Sinner with both of them coming through in straight sets without any trouble at all. Things for more difficult for Coco Gauff when she lost the first set to Ons Jabeur but she bounced back to come through in three and set up a fascinating semi-final with the world number one.
It was another winning day for us betting wise with Iga Swiatek absolutely demolishing the Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova. We thought she would win easily and took under 18.5 games but the defending champion only needed 14 games to dispatch her Czech opponent. Things got even better for us when Novak Djokovic announced he was pulling out which means that our outright bet Casper Ruud is straight into the semi-final and has plenty of time to recover from a couple of hard matches.
Jasmine Paolini vs Elena Rybakina
The first of the quarter finals comes from the women’s draw where the former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina goes up against the Italian player Jasmine Paolini who will be competing in her first Grand Slam last eight match here.
Rybakina has made it through to this stage without dropping a set and she has beaten a couple of seeded opponents in Elise Mertens and Elina Svitolina who have offered no real resistance to the Kazakh. Paolini has dropped sets in her last two matches and is yet to come up against a seed in the competition so based on the tournament so far Rybakina looks a worthy favourite. When you add in that she has won their two previous completed meetings, both of which were on clay, the latest being in Stuttgart in April, it is hard to put up a case for Rybakina losing here. She is 2/7 though which isn’t my sort of price so I’m happy to leave this one alone.
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Mirra Andreeva vs Aryna Sabalenka
The second women’s quarter final on Wednesday rounds off the day session as the young star Mirra Andreeva competes in her maiden Grand Slam quarter final when she takes on the Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka, who is looking to keep the calendar slam alive.
If experience ruled the roost here then this could be a no contest but talent comes into it and that certainly gives Andreeva a chance. She has beaten a fairly big hitter earlier in the tournament in Victoria Azarenka and there is an argument that she has nothing to lose because unlike some outsiders who make it to this stage of a major, this certainly won’t be the last time she is in the last eight of a tournament of this stature so she can give this plenty knowing more chances will come her way. Sabalenka is much more reliable at this stage of a Grand Slam than she was a couple of years ago and she has looked ruthless in this tournament so far. She is yet to drop a set and has only been past nine games in one of her eight sets to date. There is an argument that the draw has been kind and that is fair enough but we’ve seen throughout the clay season that Sabalenka is playing great tennis. I expect her to win here but much like Rybakina in the first game, she is priced accordingly and I’m not going to chase a short price or a testing handicap.
Alexander Zverev vs Alex de Minaur
With the withdrawal of Novak Djokovic we have just one quarter final in the men’s draw and it has been saved for the night session as the German star Alexander Zverev goes up against the Australian number one Alex de Minaur.
Both men will know that a semi-final with Casper Ruud awaits the winner so with no disrespect to the Norwegian this is an opportunity which is big for both players so I would imagine that will ensure this match will be even more competitive than it previously had the potential to be. I think it is fair to say that this isn’t the best surface for Alex de Minaur but at the same time it is hard to argue that he hasn’t played well on it in the first 10 days or so of this tournament and he definitely comes into this quarter final as the fresher of the two. Zverev is much the more comfortable of the two on clay but he has been on court a long time in the last few days and ultimately your body can only do so much and that would be my concern over the German, especially when the man on the other side of the net gets most things back and will extend points for as long as possible. If this turns into a punishing encounter, and the way that de Minaur is hitting the ball there is every chance it will be, then you have to think the longer it goes the better the chance of the upset. That might mean that Zverev comes out all guns blazing to try and get this done in straight sets so this is a fascinating encounter. Zverev leads 7-2 in their past battles which will give him a lot of confidence here but we should never ignore the here and now and de Minaur is playing the best tennis of his career in the last nine months or so. I’m tempted to take the Australian to win this as the fresher man but I respect Zverev on clay so I’ll play de Minaur with the 4.5 game start.
Tips
Back A.de Minaur (+4.5 games) to beat A.Zverev for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with Unibet
