Our tennis expert Andy Schooler previews Wednesday's second-round action at the French Open.
Tennis betting tips: French Open matches
1pt over 10.5 games in the first set of Reilly Opelka v Mariano Navone at 21/10 (General)
1pt Fabian Marozsan (+8.5) to beat Carlos Alcaraz on the game handicap at evens (Unibet, BetMGM, LiveScoreBet)
Reilly Opelka v Mariano Navone
It’s certainly fair to say I’ve not got much right at this tournament so far but one correct call involved Navone’s first match which, as predicted, went over the total-games line.
I mentioned his ability on serve in that preview of his match with Brandon Nakashima and I think he’ll be solid enough on that against a poor returner such as Opelka – he’s broken in only 12% of his opponents’ service games on clay this season.
The American is one of the biggest servers on the ATP Tour and so it’s no surprise he’s been playing plenty of tie-breaks, even since the move onto the clay. His hold rate on clay is 88%.
Five of Opelka’s last seven matches have featured a breaker, with three of those coming in the first set. Two other first sets ended 7-5.
Navone played a tie-break in that Nakashima match and, as was the case in that one, I feel it may well take him a while to get a read of the serve.
This will be the pair’s first meeting so I’d expect a number of early holds.
A tie-break has potential but maybe it’s worth taking the safety net of those 7-5 sets – you can get 21/10 about there being over 10.5 games in set one.
CLICK HERE to back over 10.5 games in set one with Sky Bet
Fabian Marozsan v Carlos Alcaraz
Marozsan famously beat Alcaraz in Rome a couple of years ago in what was probably the upset of the season.
His flat-hitting caused plenty of problems, taking time away from the Spaniard.
Alcaraz has clearly improved since then, although so has Marozsan, and while I’m not suggesting an even bigger upset is about to unfold in Paris, I do feel the Hungarian can cause problems here.
Marozsan reached the semi-finals in Munich recently, while he beat both Andrey Rublev and Joao Fonseca in Rome in the last big warm-up tournament.
OK, Alcaraz is another step up but while the Rome and Monte Carlo champion has been racking up the wins, he hasn’t been destroying all-comers.
The likes of Ethan Quinn and Laslo Djere have both forced tie-breaks against Alcaraz and I’m not convinced he’ll cover the handicap here.
Marozsan is tough to deal with when his game is running hot and I certainly wouldn’t rule him out of grabbing a set here.
He’s unlikely to sustain that high level enough to win the match but as long as he doesn’t throw in a shocking set, I can see him covering the game handicap with the line set at 8.5.
CLICK HERE to back Marozsan (+8.5) on the game handicap with Sky Bet
Posted at 2140 BST on 27/05/25
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