The top favorites who were in action on Day 1 at Roland Garros took care of business, but several seeded players – including Taylor Fritz – got bounced out of the tournament. What will Monday do for an encore? We will find out when Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina, Gael Monfils and Ben Shelton take the court.
Let’s take a look at the best bets to be made on the Day 2 schedule.
Alex Michelsen -2.5 games over Alexander Shevchenko (-120)
There are a lot of reasons to fade Shevchenko these days. The Kazakh is always among the most mercurial players on tour, and the bad version of himself certainly shows up a lot more often than the good one. That is certainly the case right now, as Shevchenko is on pace for his third consecutive season with a losing match record. It should also be noted that he is 31-35 on clay dating back to the start of 2024. As such, the surface really isn’t a disadvantage for Michelsen – like it is for him against many opponents when he plays on clay. The truth, too, is that the 21-year-old is getting better and better on the red stuff as he gains experience. Michelsen is coming off a quarterfinal effort in Geneva, where he defeated Sebastian Baez and Stan Wawrinka before losing to eventual champion Learner Tien in 3 sets.
Zeynep Sonmez +3.5 games over Daria Kasatkina (+105)
This feels like a tossup matchup, so Sonmez has great value as a considerable underdog. The Turk, who always benefits from raucous fan support everywhere she goes, has advanced at least 1 round at her last 6 tournaments – including recent third-round appearances on clay in Stuttgart and Madrid. Sonmez also has the rest advantage of Kasatkina, who played 5 matches this past week in Strasbourg (2 in qualifying). Prior to that, the Australian had not done anything of note on the main tour in 2026. Sound the upset alert – but let’s take the game spread just to be safer.
Terence Atmane -1.5 sets over Thanasi Kokkinakis (-120)
The oft-injured Kokkinakis has played only 2 matches since the Australian Open, and he pulled out of a recent Challenger event in Zagreb because of additional physical problems. There is no reason to think the Aussie is ready for a best-of-5 set grind on clay. Although his draw isn’t a terrible one, Atmane is a capable clay-court player and will have the French crowd firmly in his corner. It would be quite surprising if Kokkinakis even takes 1 set on Monday.
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