The second day of the French Open at Roland Garros provides with a cracking looking schedule as the clay court Grand Slam continues with another bunch of first round matches out in Paris on what looks a good day of tennis.
We have both defending champions taking to the courts on Monday as well as a number of potential winners here so we should be all set for a brilliant bank holiday day of tennis over in the French capital.
Philippe Chatrier Court
As you would expect the quality is high on the Philippe Chatrier Court on Monday and it begins with the defending women’s champion Iga Swiatek. She opens up the play on the main court against the dangerous challenger Rebecca Sramkova. When they are done the marquee first round match between Paula Badosa and Naomi Osaka will be played out before the men round off the day session when Richard Gasquet gets his last French Open main draw underway when he faces his fellow wildcard Terence Atmane. The night session also has the men on show and it will see the number one seed Jannik Sinner going up against another home star in Arthur Rinderknech.
Suzanne Lenglen Court
Emma Navarro has the honour of opening up a really good schedule over on the Suzanne Lenglen Court. The American will face off against Jessica Bouzas Maneiro before the defending men’s champion makes a rare appearance on the second court when Carlos Alcaraz faces the qualifier Giulio Zeppieri. The third match on this court could be an emotional one when Caroline Garcia begins her last French Open when she meets Bernarda Pera and then we conclude the show on this court with the leading French ranked player, Arthur Fils, going up against the big serving Chilean player Nicolas Jarry.
Simonne Mathieu Court
There is a top quality schedule over on the Simonne Mathieu Court as well which gets underway with the former finalist Casper Ruud meeting the veteran Albert Ramos-Vinolas before the US Open finalist Taylor Fritz takes on Daniel Altmaier for a place in the second round. The British number one Katie Boulter is on court in the third match of the day when she faces the home qualifier Carole Monnet before the Australian Open winner Madison Keys looks to extend her unbeaten run in Grand Slams in 2025 when she meets Daria Saville.
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Best of the Rest
We have a full schedule around the grounds on Monday so if you have a ground pass or access to all the court streams you can watch some seriously good competitors. Seeded players who begin their campaign on the outside courts include the former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, Holger Rune, past champion here Barbora Krejcikova, the home ace Ugo Humbert, Alexei Popyrin, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Daria Kasatkina, Clara Tauson, Liudmila Samsonova and Denis Shapovalov while recognisable unseeded names include Danielle Collins, the former US Open champion Emma Raducanu, another past winner here in Stan Wawrinka and Jiri Lehecka. They are just some of many good players on show.
Men’s Betting
There is just the one bet in the men’s draw that I like the look of on Monday and that comes in the form of Luciano Darderi to get the better of Seb Korda. Korda doesn’t have a terrible record here to be fair but there is no doubt that he would prefer this match to be taking place on a hard court or a grass court. On clay, Darderi will be comfortable and he comes in here off the back of a title in Morocco and a couple of other solid efforts on the dirt this term.
You never know what physical shape Korda is going to arrive into these things with and that is a concern. You get the feeling that this could turn into a physical match too with Darderi going pretty well at the minute and the big weapons that Korda has won’t be as deadly as they will on the other surfaces so the harder and more physical the Italian can make this the better. I’m surprised you can get odds against on Darderi here but I’m happy to take it.
Women’s Betting
There is only one which interests me in the women’s draw as well where I have to take on Emma Raducanu. She has openly admitted that she is still making her way on the clay and has a lot of improving to do on it but more of a worry would be the injury concerns she came away from Strasbourg last week with where it was said she was suffering back spasms. Only she will know how much of that was real and how much it was an excuse to be fresh for here having had a relatively decent clay season so far.
Raducanu meets Wang Xinyu in the opening round and while Wang hasn’t pulled up many trees on clay, she appears fit and has more experience on the surface and probably carries less expectation in with her here. Wang won their only previous meeting a few weeks after Raducanu won the US Open and if she can get stuck into the Briton’s serve there is no reason why the Chinese player can’t come out on top here. Wang just needs to be solid and dependable and if she can make this physical so much the better. At 11/5 I can’t ignore her price.
Tips
Back L.Darderi to beat S.Korda for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back him here:
Back W.Xinyu to beat E.Raducanu for a 3/10 stake at 3.20 with Betway
