American Betting Experts new tennis writer J.J Gale previews the 2020 French Open and shares his best bets from Roland Garros, which will be played for the first time ever in October and with a reduced field and reduced crowds.
With the first round set to begin on Sunday, the pinnacle of the clay court season will be missing some of its biggest names for a variety of reasons.
Who are the big names missing?
- Roger Federer (injury)
- Juan Martin del Potro (injury)
- Milos Raonic (unknown)
- Nick Kyrgios (fear of COVID-19)
- Ashleigh Barty (fear of COVID-19)
- Naomi Osaka (too little preparation time)
- Belinda Bencic (injury)
- Bianca Andreescu (injury)
- 50% of the fans (COVID-19)
With these withdrawals comes opportunity for others to step up, particularly in the women’s draw, where five of the last seven grand slam winners have been ruled out. Simona Halep enters as the rightful favorite (+275) having triumphed in the Rome Masters. She is followed in the betting by Garbine Muguruza (+700), who was dispatched in the semi-final in Rome by Halep, but it is here we find our first piece of value in the tournament. BetMGM have priced Muguruza at +300 to win her quarter. This is well out of whack with the probably shrewder UK market, where the best available price is +170, so get to whacking.
Another price that catches the eye is Madison Keys at +900 to win the fourth quarter. Her clay game is not to be sniffed at and the favorites in this section of the draw don’t necessarily have easy paths to make it through. She is a former semi-finalist in her own right and will be seeking a return to that form for a potential return to the latter rounds.
On the men’s side, Rafa Nadal, is installed as the market leader (+110) followed closely by Novak Djokovic (+210). However, we again look at the quarter markets to seek out some value. Filip Krajinovic looks to start the tournament with a very comfortable draw, which should allow him to find his stride before a potential meeting with Tsitsipas in the third round. Should he overcome him, then the +1200 currently available at Bet365 for him to win the quarter could be looking very tasty.
The third quarter has a Thiem v Schwartzmann quarter-final written all over it. Schwartzmann is very capable of hanging with Thiem and they have both won one match apiece when playing on clay in recent times. The +1000 offered about Schwartzmann to win the quarter with BetMGM is more than fair and will be seeing some of our hard earned moola.
Recommendations
- 2pts – Garbine Muguruza to win third quarter @ +300 with BetMGM
- 1pt – Madison Keys to win fourth quarter @ +900 with BetMGM
- 1pt – Filip Krajinovic to win second quarter @ +1200 with Bet365
- 1pt – Diego Schwartzmann to win third quarter @ +1000 with BetMGM
