Tennis Tips - French Open Day 5 Tips

Kimberley Birrell shocked the world with a first-round upset over Jessica Pegula – what can she do in her second round match?

Best Bet

Victoria Mboko -3.5

Game Handicap

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$1.72

Some slight concerns leading into Roland Garros with a limited clay court lead-in, but Mboko was back to her best in the opening round with a 6-1 6-2 win.

The Canadian will face Katerina Siniakova, who is much better on grass than clay across her career. The Czech has won just one of her last seven against top-50 opposition on clay, with her only win being in Rome in the lead-up against Boisson – the Frenchwoman’s live ranking has now dropped to 148 in the world.

I expect Mboko to win this convincingly.

Next Best

Valentin Vacherot +4.5

Game Handicap

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$1.80

Extremely surprised to see the Monasque at this price. There were concerns in his opening round, but I think the conditions actually suit Vacherot more than Tabilo with how quick they are playing in the heat.

Vacherot is 5-2 on clay this year after making the Semi Finals of Monte Carlo in the lead-up, and has produced a generational run since October from outside the top-200 to now 19 in the world.

Tabilo was impressive in his opening round, but his Polish opponent was extremely poor. Vacherot will be a much greater challenge for the Chilean.

Auger Aliassime vs Burruchaga Over 36.5

Total Games

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$1.83

Felix Auger Aliassime seems to play a lot of four or five set matches in majors, as demonstrated in his opening round match with Altmeier that went the distance – the Canadian winning in a super tiebreak.

He now has to face an in-form clay courter in Roman Andres Burruchaga, with the Argentine advancing with relative easy against Baez in his opening round.

Burruchaga took Tommy Paul to three sets in the Final in Houston earlier in the year – I think he can at least take one or two sets off FAA in this.

Oleksandra Oliynykova -3.5

Game Handicap

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$1.83

An insane win by Kimberley Birrell knocking off the in-form Jessica Pegula to record her first ever main draw win at the French Open.

She’ll now face Oliynykova who steamrolled past her first round opponent, and just appears that she’ll be more equipped on this surface than the Australian.

The Ukrainian is 12-4 against opponents ranked lower than her this year, and has easily covered this game handicap in the last four of those – all on clay.

Value Bet

Vit Kopriva

Match

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$2.05

Not quite pick-em with Landaluce the favourite in this, but after Kopriva got past Moutet at a nice price, I expected the Czech to have the edge in this second-round clash.

Kopriva is 13-10 on clay this year, including 5-5 against top-50 opposition with wins over Darderi and Rublev.

Landaluce is a promising 20-year-old, but is appearing in just his second major and needed five sets to get past his first round opponent ranked 176 in the world. The Spaniard is 3-4 against top-100 opposition on clay this year, but I think the experience of Kopriva in these conditions will be too much.

Multi

Cobolli (M) / Shelton (M) / Keys (W) / Oliynykova (W) / Mboko (W) = $4.38

Sports Journalist

Dale Crotty

Few know the NBA like Dale, who has spent years backing winners for punters across a number of publications and podcasts. He also specialises in tennis and AFL.