The opening day of the French Open sees both singles draws getting underway on what is a lighter schedule than usual on Sunday as the gates of Roland Garros open up to the main draw for the first time in the second Grand Slam of the season.
There are one or two big names dotted about the show courts on Sunday but in the main they come along on Monday and Tuesday. Everyone on show will be looking for the win which will take them into the second round.
Philippe Chatrier Court
It is the world number one Aryna Sabalenka who opens up the show on the main court on Sunday. The former Australian Open champion meets Jamilla Rakhimova. When they are done the Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng will look to keep up her unbeaten run on this court when she faces Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova before the day session concludes with the dark horse Lorenzo Musetti meeting Yannick Hanfmann in the first men’s match of the tournament on the show court. The men will be involved in the night session too when Ben Shelton meets Lorenzo Sonego in a repeat of a feisty Australian Open quarter final from earlier in the year.
Suzanne Lenglen Court
Elina Svitolina will be the first seeded player onto the second court when she faces off against the Turkish player Zeynep Sonmez. The men follow those two onto court where the crowd will be able to get behind one of their own when Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard takes on Zizou Bergs. Frances Tiafoe will be the headline draw in the third match on the court when he meets Roman Safiullin before the closer on Lenglen on the opening day sees the recent Rome champion and beaten finalist here last year, Jasmine Paolini, going up against the Chinese player Yue Yuan.
Simonne Mathieu Court
There is a decent schedule over on the third court on Sunday as well and it gets underway with Tommy Paul taking to the stage to take on the lucky loser Elmer Moller. Diana Shnaider could be a dark horse over this fortnight and she is second onto the court. She faces the Ukrainian qualifier Anastasiia Sobolieva. The Olympic finalist Donna Vekic is third up on Sunday when she meets Anna Blinkova before the action on this court concludes with Tomas Machac facing the home player in Quinten Halys.
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Best of the Rest
We don’t have a full schedule on the outside courts on Sunday but we do have some other seeds on show around the grounds. Brandon Nakashima, Alex Michelsen, Amanda Anisimova, Leylah Fernandez and Linda Noskova are the seeds on show but there are a host of recognisable unseeded players taking to the courts as well with Petra Kvitova always popular wherever she plays. Jenson Brooksby, Pablo Carreno Busta, Nuno Borges, Reilly Opelka and Botic van de Zandschulp others in action.
Men’s Betting
I like a couple of bets in the men’s draw on Sunday with the first of them coming in the form of Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard to get the better of Zizou Bergs. Obviously one reason to like the Frenchman is he will have the home crowd on his side but he also won a Challenger event in Bordeaux not too long ago so he brings some winning form into this match with him. Bergs doesn’t. He has lost his last three matches and lost them in straight sets and the big serving Frenchman has the tools to add to the loss tally of the Belgian. I think he’s an acceptable bet at 5/6.
Lorenzo Sonego and Ben Shelton played out a feisty affair in Melbourne earlier in the year and the Italian can get revenge for his defeat on a surface where he is much the better player. To be fair to Shelton, he hasn’t been completely useless on clay this season but Sonego is much more attuned to this surface and I would expect him to be doing all the pushing should he be able to negate the Shelton serve. The fact this is on clay and at night should naturally allow him to do that and fuelled by revenge I think Sonego can turn his form around with a win here.
Women’s Betting
There are some good looking matches in the women’s draw on Sunday but there is only one of them which interests me from a betting point of view and it is the one which features the seeded player Linda Noskova and Anastasia Potapova where I’m a little surprised that certain bookmakers can’t split them. Noskova has been found wanting a little on the clay this season and hasn’t actually beaten anyone in the top 50 on the surface.
Potapova enjoyed a decent run here last year so she will be receiving positive memories when she walks through the gates but she has also seen off Qinwen Zheng and Sofia Kenin on the clay this season, beating them both in Madrid and she also took care of Dayana Yastremska in Rome before she ran into Aryna Sabalenka. Noskova seems to be better suited to the faster courts at present and so I’ll go with Potapova here.
Tips
Back G.Mpetshi Perricard to beat Z.Bergs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Sky Bet
Back L.Sonego to beat B.Shelton for a 3/10 stake at 2.30 with William Hill
Back him here:
Back A.Potapova to beat L.Noskova for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Bet365
