Ricky Dimon
Tennis
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The second Grand Slam of the season is off and running and the second favorite on the women’s side is already out. Ons Jabeur lost to Magda Linette when competition began at the French Open on Sunday. Although that is considerable surprise given Jabeur’s red-hot form going into the tournament, nothing other than an Iga Swiatek loss is going to send shockwaves through the women’s draw since Swiatek is such an overwhelming favorite.
Monday marks the beginning of the top-ranked Pole’s fortnight, while Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are also taking the court.
For the Aussie Open, the first major of the season, I compiled a 26-13 record with my daily bets. I also nailed Nadal at +900 outright as a 3-star best bet and Ashleigh Barty (+275) was my successful pick to win the women’s title.
I went 2-1 on Day 1 at Roland Garros. Let’s keep the momentum going!
Amanda Anisimova ML over Naomi Osaka (-160)
The marquee matchup of the entire first round on either the men’s or women’s side pits Osaka against Anisimova. Don’t be surprised if it fails to live up to the hype. It’s hard to see the slam winning, world No. 1 version of Osaka being on display in this one. She is down at No. 38 in the world and even at her peak the Japanese star has never been good on clay. In fact, she is just 3-4 on the surface dating back to 2020. Anisimova has more than tripled that number of clay-court wins already in this season alone (10-3) and she was a French Open semifinalist in 2019. The American should roll.
Corentin Moutet ML over Stan Wawrinka (-130)
This pick is more about fading Wawrinka than backing Moutet. After all, neither man inspires much confidence at the moment. Moutet is outside the top 100 in the world rankings. However, Wawrinka just missed an entire year to a foot injury and his comeback has been slow going the past few weeks. The 2015 French Open champion at least picked up a couple of wins in Rome, but his fitness is obviously a question mark and in Paris he of course has to play matches that are best of five sets. I can’t see Wawrinka wiping Moutet off the court quickly, and the Frenchman will have the edge as it drags on. French players always get raucous fan support at Roland Garros and that should also contribute to Moutet improving his record to 2-0 lifetime in the head-to-head series against Wawrinka.
Arthur Rinderknech ML over Alexander Bublik (-175)
Bublik has spent the entire clay-court swing talking about how much he hates the surface and his desire to get on grass (the lead-up tournaments to Wimbledon begin immediately following the French Open). He’s actually not that terrible on clay, but it’s true the Kazakh is much more capable on hard courts and grass. Rinderknech, on the other hand, is just fine on the red stuff and he will be backed by the French fans. The former Texas A&M standout already leads the head-to-head series 2-0 and will likely make it 3-0 without any real trouble.
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