The second day of the French Open sees the first round of the tournament continuing at Roland Garros in Paris on Monday as a number of big names make their bow in the competition and look to put a marker down for the two weeks ahead.
It was a fairly low key day to open up proceedings on Sunday, not helped by the rain, but the schedule for Monday looks absolutely lit up and contained the heavyweight clash which will get the majority of the attention.
Day 1 Recap
It was a day without a huge surprise on the opening day of the tournament but one where a number of seeds were tested before they came through. The highest seeds on show in the men’s draw were Carlos Alcaraz, Andrey Rublev and Hubert Hurkacz. Alcaraz won in straight sets in no time at all while Rublev needed four sets and Hurkacz five. In the women’s draw Jelena Ostapenko won in straight sets while Caroline Garcia, Dayana Yastremska and Marta Kostyuk won in three. The former winner Barbora Krejcikova bowed out.
It was a positive betting day for us on Sunday with the two bets that we put up both won with no real complications whatsoever. Marie Bouzkova needed next to no time at all to dispose of the challenge of Veronika Kudermetova to ensure a profit on the day and then Stan Wawrinka brushed Andy Murray aside in straight sets to boost the winnings on the opening day of the event and set us up for an assault on Monday.
Philippe Chatrier Court
We have a really good schedule on the main court on Monday which once again has three day matches and one in the night session. The day session begins with the former Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur looking to make it through to the second round when she takes on Sachia Vickery. When they are done Iga Swiatek gets her title defence underway when the world number one meets Leolia Jeanjean to open up her campaign. There is only one match in the men’s draw on Monday in the day session and it is the huge first round clash between Alexander Zverev and Rafael Nadal. That leaves us with the night match which is another men’s clash as the home favourite Gael Monfils takes on Thiago Seyboth Wild.
Suzanne Lenglen Court
We have a really good schedule over on the Suzanne Lenglen court on Monday as well where the Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner will look to make it into the second round when he goes up against Christopher Eubanks. When they are done the former finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas meets Marton Fucsovics in another good looking first round match. We finish the day with a couple of women’s matches where the US Open winner Coco Gauff takes on Julia Avdeeva before arguably the pick of the women’s games sees Elina Svitolina meets Karolina Pliskova.
Simonne Mathieu Court
There is another decent looking card on the Simonne Mathieu court as well and we get underway with the Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova meeting Rebeka Masarova. We move into the men’s draw for the second match on the schedule as Arthur Fils takes on Matteo Arnaldi before we go back to the first round of the women’s draw for Maria Sakkari beginning her tournament when she takes on the home player Varvara Gracheva before the schedule closes with the number five seed Daniil Medvedev looking to make it through when he takes on Dominik Koepfer.
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Best of the Rest
We have a better schedule overall on Monday with the tournament going up a notch and as such there are a lot of seeds on the outside courts looking to avoid being the victim of an early shock. Among those out early in the day are Ben Shelton, Jasmine Paolini, Karen Khachanov, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Danielle Collins and Ekaterina Alexandrova while Leylah Fernandez, Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafoe, Beatriz Haddad Maia and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova are some of the later ones who are on show.
Men’s Betting
I’m still easing my way into the tournament so I’m not going mad until we have established the state of play with conditions after the rain that has been around and where the form lines are and things but there is one in the men’s draw which I can’t ignore and that comes in the form of the home man Luca van Assche in his match against Denis Shapovalov where I’m actually surprised that the youngster is solid odds against to win.
Shapovalov is down at 123 in the world and he is only 3-5 on clay since the hard court swing and isn’t really showing any signs of finding the form that he had probably before Covid. He was going to be vulnerable against anyone in this draw let alone a player who will be inspired by performing in front of his home crowd. To be fair, van Assche hasn’t really pulled up trees on the clay courts this season but there is no denying his talent and with Shapovalov really struggling I think the Frenchman is value for this one.
Women’s Betting
I’m going to take one in the women’s draw as well on Monday and that also involves a home outsider this time in the form of Clara Burel who might just have the perfect draw in Anna Kalinskaya who is only 2-4 on clay this season and who has never won a match here. She went well in the Australian Open at the beginning of the year but that was on a hard court and this is very different and I think she is a vulnerable favourite.
Burel has been winning more matches recently and while she hasn’t gone deep in an event, she beat Karolina Pliskova and Elina Svitolina in Strasbourg last week and that just feels like the ideal preparation for this particular match. Throw in her motivation of performing in a home crowd and a competition of this kind, I think there is every reason to believe that she is a decent price to cause what I don’t think would be quite the upset the bookies have it as.
Tips
Back L.van Assche to beat D.Shapovalov for a 3/10 stake at 2.38 with Coral
Back C.Burel to beat A.Kalinskaya for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with Betway
