The tennis world’s collective attention turns to the red clay at Roland Garros for the next two weeks, where the legends of the game will battle it out once again for the right to be called French Open Champion. Of course, when it comes to this tournament, one legend stands head and shoulders above the rest: Rafael Nadal has been nearly unbeatable on clay for most of the past decade and has made Roland Garros his personal stomping grounds, taking home the title in each of the past five years and nine times overall. Nadal has looked frighteningly mortal for the last few weeks, though, failing to win a clay court tournament prior to the French for the first time in his career. As a result, his world ranking has dropped all the way to 7th, leaving him a tougher-than-usual draw as he fights for a sixth consecutive title. If you think the Spaniard can find his form and put forth another historic performance, he can currently be backed at 3.9 at BETDAQ.
The women’s draw is a bit more wide-open than the men’s, and historically this tournament tends to produce more upsets/surprises than any other Grand Slam, due in no small part to the oddities of clay court tennis. There hasn’t been a true “surprise” winner in a few years, though, and Maria Sharapova has asserted herself here with two wins in the past three years. She’s the betting favorite this time around, followed closely by two-time champion Serena Williams and red-hot Simona Halep. Will the favorites prevail this year, or will the clay have some surprises in store for us? Predicting the future is always tricky business, but if you’re looking for someone to give it a shot, you’ve come to the right place:
WIN MARKET
Recommendations to BACK (odds in parenthesis)
Women
Petra Kvitova (6.4)- Though she’s never advanced further than the semifinals at Roland Garros, Kvitova is currently playing the best tennis of her career, having just triumphed in impressive fashion in Madrid two weeks ago. The Madrid tournament has been a good precursor for the French in recent years, and Kvitova’s play there, where she handed Serena Williams her first loss of the year and then rolled through Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 6-2 in the final, was certainly eye-opening. The time feels right for a career-defining breakthrough, and the odds are friendly enough to warrant a bet.
Carla Suarez-Navarro (10)- Suarez-Navarro has played some excellent tennis this year, advancing to the quarterfinals or deeper in 10 of the 11 tournaments she has entered. And while she has yet to win, she’s knocking on the door with increasing frequency, most recently in Rome last week, where she beat Eugenie Bouchard, Petra Kvitova, and Simona Halep in succession before losing a tough three-setter to Maria Sharapova in the final. It would be a mild surprise to see Suarez-Navarro emerge victorious at Roland Garros, but only a mild surprise. She’s worth a bet at the current price.
Men
Novak Djokovic (1.74)- Okay, I know it’s kind of lame to pick the prohibitive favorite in situations like this, but if you don’t think Djokovic is the right play this week– the only play, really– then you haven’t been paying attention. The Djoker is in full bloom at the moment, having won 22 consecutive matches since his last loss, which came against Roger Federer on the hard courts at Dubai. Djokovic handled Federer with ease in the Rome final last week, though, and he’s won all 10 of his clay court matches this year. With the career Grand Slam in his sights and with the great Rafa Nadal seemingly de-fanged, this is Djokovic’s time to shine. I’ll be shocked if he doesn’t get it done.
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