Ricky Dimon
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First-round action at the 2021 French Open resumes on Tuesday. The other three Grand Slams begin on a Monday and the first round is spread across only two days, but at Roland Garros the opening round requires three days to be completed (it began on Sunday). Although that makes for fewer matches per day before the men’s and women’s fields are cut to 64 players apiece, it also means the overall tournament lasts 15 days instead of 14. More days mean more betting opportunities. Everybody wins! At least let’s hope everybody wins.
Throughout the two weeks in Paris, Pickswise will be offering plenty of content to help you become a winner at tennis betting.
Let’s continue by taking a look at some of the best bets for Tuesday at Roland Garros, and be sure to also check out our best futures bets for the fortnight.
Parlay: Novak Djokovic 3-0 over Tennys Sandgren, Rafael Nadal 3-0 over Alexei Popyrin, and Diego Schwartzman 3-0 over Yen-Hsun Lu (-130)
Djokovic and Nadal are virtual locks to win in straight sets, as they almost always are in the early rounds of Grand Slams, barring unexpected bad draws. Sandgren has been in terrible form this season, while Popyrin has a lot of talent but isn’t at his best on clay. Nadal just routed the 21-year-old Australian 6-3, 6-3 in Madrid, where conditions are much more favorable for Popyrin than they are for Nadal. The Spaniard boasts a 100-2 lifetime record at Roland Garros and has won the tournament 13 times. As for Schwartzman and Lu, the latter’s career seems to be coming to a close. The 37-year-old from Chinese Taipei is ranked No. 680 in the world. Also, clay has always been by far his worst surface. Count on straight-set sweeps for all three of these seeded players.
Albert Ramos-Vinolas -1.5 sets over Gael Monfils (+110)
Monfils is a shadow of his pre-pandemic self. The Frenchman has won only one match since February of 2020, and that was over an opponent ranked No. 122 in the world. Ramos-Vinolas, on the other hand, has won 18 matches this year, 17 of them clay. The Spaniard is arguably the best unseeded player in the draw, and he should have little trouble against a struggling opponent. Ramos-Vinolas dominated their most recent clay-court meeting 6-3, 6-1 two years ago in Rome and that was when Monfils was playing well. There is no reason to think anything will be any different this time around. It’s hard to see Monfils taking more than a set, and he may not even win one.
Richard Gasquet to beat Hugo Gaston (-121)
The odds in this all-French showdown are way too close for two reasons: one, Gasquet is past his prime; two, Gaston made a shocking run to the Roland Garros fourth round in 2020. This only means that there is great value on Gasquet. The 34-year-old may not be the player he once was, but he recently advanced to the quarter-finals on the clay courts of Lyon. Perhaps most important is the fact that Gaston’s fourth-round performance last fall has been confirmed to be a fluke. The 20-year-old has done nothing since, and he is even struggling to win any matches while toiling away in Challengers and Futures (the proverbial minor leagues of tennis).
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