The second round of the singles action at the French Open concludes at Roland Garros on Thursday when the halves of both draws which weren’t on show on Wednesday take to the courts as we finalise the third round matches.
We saw both of the defending champions make progress on Wednesday and on Thursday it is the turn of the tournament favourite Jannik Sinner and the likes of Coco Cauff, Alexander Zverev and Jessica Pegula to take centre stage again.
Philippe Chatrier Court
We begin the fifth day on the main court with two American ladies taking to the stage when the number three seed Jessica Pegula meets Ann Li for a place in the third round. When they are done the marquee match of the day session will take place when the world number one Jannik Sinner faces the home star Richard Gasquet in what could be the final French Open match for the Frenchman. The Australian Open champion Madison Keys follows them onto court when she meets the British number one Katie Boulter to close out the day session. The night session also has a Brit involved when Jack Draper faces the crowd favourite Gael Monfils.
Suzanne Lenglen Court
There will be a big crowd in from the off on the second court on Thursday as the leading French player in the world rankings Arthur Fils looks to make it to the third round. Jaume Munar is the man standing in his way. Coco Gauff is one of the favourites to prevail at the tournament and she will bid for a third round place at the expense of Tereza Valentova. A really good card on Lenglen continues with the multiple time champion Novak Djokovic third onto the court when he meets the home player Corentin Moutet before the action concludes on the second court with Daria Kasatkina facing the home player Leolia Jeanjean.
Simonne Mathieu Court
The bright teenage star Mirra Andreeva opens up another good schedule over on the Simonne Mathieu court when she takes on Ashlyn Krueger in what is a close looking match. Alexander Zverev has made it out to the third court for this match and he’ll look for victory against the Dutch player Jesper de Jong. Paula Badosa had to come through an epic against Naomi Osaka in the opening round and she will take on Elena-Gabriella Ruse in the penultimate match on this court before we conclude with the home seeded player Ugo Humbert who takes on the rising British star Jacob Fearnley.
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Best of the Rest
As was the case on Wednesday, we have some excellent action dotted around the grounds on Thursday. On Court 14 we have the quarter finalist of a year ago in Alex de Minaur who faces the big serving Alexander Bublik while former champion Barbora Krejcikova, Victoria Azarenka, Sofia Kenin and the new young hotshot Joao Fonseca are all on that court too. Jakub Mensik, Andrey Rublev, Magdalena Frech, former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, Ekaterina Alexandrova and Denis Shapovalov are the other stars on show across the day.
Men’s Betting
There are a couple of bets that I am interested in over on the men’s side of things on Thursday with the first of them coming right out of the gate where I like Jiri Lehecka as an underdog against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who started out the clay court swing well but has gone badly off the boil in recent times. More of a concern to me than his form is that he had a medical time out in the first round and duly dropped a set against a player he was expected to dominate. Lehecka hasn’t gone as well on the clay this season but he thrashed Jordan Thompson in the first round and he has a 2-0 lead over the Spaniard, who he looks to have a physical edge on right now. I think there is enough in the prices for Lehecka to merit a bet here.
I’m always keen to get on rising talents against fading forces or players who aren’t comfortable on the surface they are playing on and we have one of those meetings on Thursday when Jacob Fearnley meets Ugo Humbert. Humbert will have the home crowd against him but Fearnley has already seen off one crowd favourite in Stan Wawrinka in ruthless fashion so I’m not convinced the crowd will be a problem. Humbert should be good on clay but he has won three of his last 12 matches dating back to last season on it and when you look at that record, all of a sudden Humbert could be forgiven for looking ahead to the grass court season. Fearnley showed no fear or remorse against Wawrinka in the first round and while this will be a tougher assignment, it is one he has every chance of winning at odds against.
Women’s Betting
It is less of an obvious day in terms of bets in the women’s draw though. There were one or two matches where I hoped the prices or the lines would be slightly different to what they are but I can’t quite get what I’m looking for so in the end I will go with the one bet where I am content with the line I’m getting. That comes in the match between Sofia Kenin and Victoria Azarenka, where the younger player is very much to my liking.
I’ve been a big fan of Azarenka in her career but her form this year has been very ordinary. That seems daft to say when she won her first round match here 60 60 but that was the case and I’m not sure a facile win over Yanina Wickmayer proves any different. The emphatic win of Kenin over Varvara Gracheva was much more appealing and it is probably no surprise when we consider that Kenin was a finalist in Charleston on the clay last month. These two look to be heading in different directions and so I fancy Kenin to win and cover 3.5 games here.
Tips
Back J.Lehecka to beat A.Davidovich Fokina for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with William Hill
Back him here:
Back J.Fearnley to beat U.Humbert for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with Betway
Back S.Kenin (-3.5 games) to beat V.Azarenka for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Betfair
