The fourth day of action in the French Open is upon us on Wednesday when the second round of the tournament on both the men’s and women’s side of the singles draws begin. The bottom half of both events will be played down to the last 32 stage, weather permitting, on Wednesday in what promises to be another exciting day at Roland Garros.
Tuesday recap
It was another good day for our bets on Tuesday as both the men’s punts landed at very attractive prices with Stephane Robert and Nicolas Almagro both coming through their respective matches in four sets.
Sadly Jo Konta couldn’t handle Julia Goerges so we didn’t get all three winners on Tuesday but we did come out of the day with a second successive set of very encouraging profits in a row.
Elsewhere Andy Murray came through his delayed match with Radek Stepanek while Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic both eased into the second round along with the likes of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Tomas Berdych and David Ferrer. Instead the shocks were reserved to the women’s draw.
Victoria Azarenka and the Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber were both surprisingly knocked out on Tuesday by significantly lesser opponents while the two British ladies in action both went out as Jo Konta and Laura Robson were uprooted by Julia Goerges and Andrea Petkovic respectively.
Wednesday Men’s Matches
Wednesday in the men’s draw has largely been like the entire week so far has been where there are an awful lot of short priced favourites needing to cover large handicaps and as such betting opportunities are quite thin on the ground in many ways.
Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori are all on the cast list on Wednesday but it is another of the rising stars whose match I’m going to get stuck into and that is the Australian maverick Nick Kyrgios.
He takes on Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands for a place in the third round and he is a very very warm favourite to come through. While I would expect Kyrgios to win the match and he might well do so in straight sets I think covering an 8.5 game handicap line is a totally different thing entirely.
While Kyrgios’ game is improving at a real rate I still don’t think he has the all-round game to win a couple of sets by big margins. He is reliable behind his serve which is why I think he will win but he is forced to play an awful lot of tie-breaks because he doesn’t have the rest of his game to the level required consistently.
That is pretty much how I see this match going. Serve will dominate and while the Australian might force the odd break I don’t think he’ll force enough to cover this line. I can see him winning in straight sets with a couple of tight sets and maybe a tie-break along the way.
Sijsling has been ranked as high as 52 in the world so he can hold his own and against a guy lacking the variety and court skills of some out on tour I fancy the Dutchman can keep this close before falling to defeat.
Wednesday Women’s Matches
The women’s matches on Wednesday are much like the men with the big favourites still having to cover big handicap lines. One of those favourites, Garbine Muruguza, struggled in the first round so there is no incentive to back her here. Simona Halep and Agnieszka Radwanska are also in action on Wednesday as is former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.
It is Radwanska’s match which interests me on what I have to say is a quiet day of betting for me on Wednesday. She takes on the dangerous form horse Caroline Garcia who will have plenty of home support behind her out on Lenglen.
These two have met three times in their career so far and all three matches have gone the distance and you would have to suggest with the way both are playing this year this one easily could too. Garcia goes into the tournament having won in Strasbourg last week and dominated in the first round here while Radwanska is 21-6 for the year which is mightily impressive too.
We might well see a couple of close sets here given how well the two are playing but with their previous three meetings all going the distance there is no reason why this one can’t either. However it plays out the form guide and head to head suggest we are going to see more than 20.5 games.
Tips
Back I.Sijsling (+8.5 games) to beat N.Kyrgios for a 4/10 stake at 1.87 with Unibet
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Back C.Garcia vs A.Radwanska – Over 20.5 games for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
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