French Open day 8: Five Sunday tips from fourth round fixtures
Sam Barnard, Assistant Sports Editor | May 28, 2016
2016 French Open day eight
- Sunday, May 29th
- First matches scheduled on court: 10:00 BST
- Roland Garros, Paris
- Live on ITV4 and Eurosport
Murray finally finds form
We’re now into the fourth round matches at the 2016 French Open, and Coral have picked out five top tips to take from the men and women’s singles draws.
The likes of Andy Murray, Kei Nishikori, Stan Wawrinka, Simona Halep and Garbine Muguruza all feature on day eight of the event on Sunday, so read on to find out how to best back your favourite players…
Murray to win first set v Isner via tie-break
Scotsman Murray has finally found his feet in this tournament, after easily dispatching Ivo Karlovic last time out 3-0, having had to dig deep to see off Radek Stepanek and Mathias Bourgue in five sets in the first two rounds.
He now takes on another big-serving giant in John Isner, who only scraped past Teymuraz Gabashvili 3-2 in his last 32 tie.
Murray has beaten the American in each of their five meetings to date, with four of those going to a first set tie-break. Therefore, odds of 7/2 for the Scot to defeat Isner 7-6 in the opener again look highly enticing.
Halep to beat Stosur 2-1
This duo meet after recently locking horns in the Madrid Masters semi-final on clay, where Halep was a convincing 6-2 6-0 victor on her way to lifting the trophy.
However, Sam Stosur has looked good this tournament, having just knocked out 11th seed Lucie Safaraova, while has also defeated Halep on the orange surface twice before.
A closer outcome is expected this time around, with the pair having claimed three wins apiece against each other, so back top Romanian tennis pro Halep at 11/4 to knock out Aussie star Stosur in three sets.
Nishikori to claim four sets win over Gasquet
Frenchman Richard Gasquet may boast a 6-2 winning record over Kei Nishikori, but both his losses to the Japanese star came this year and on clay in straight sets.
Being in front of his home crowd should spur Gasquet on more, but Nishikori is a great 11/4 shout to come through 3-1, following his five-setter with Fernando Verdasco.
Kuznetsova to beat Muguruza
Venezuelan-born Spaniard Muguruza may be the fourth seed and a quarter-finalist at the French the last two years, but she goes up against 2009 Roland Garros champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, who certainly knows her way round a clay court.
Their only previous tussle ended in a victory for the double Grand Slam-winning Russian too, in the 2015 Madrid Masters, so she is very tempting at 11/8 just to triumph again.
Wawrinka to beat Troicki 3-1
After both coming through tight five-setters from 2-1 down in round one, Wawrinka and Viktor Troicki have looked fairly comfortable in their following fixtures, and now go head-to-head for a place in the quarters.
The Serbian has never reached that stage at any Grand Slam before, while the Swiss happens to be the defending champion.
Wawrinka has won all four of their previous meetings, though dropped a set against Troicki once on clay, so is 5/2 to do so and triumph once more.
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