French Open day 3: Five Tuesday tips from first round fixtures
Published:
Sam Barnard, Assistant Sports Editor | May 23, 2016
2016 French Open day three
- Tuesday, May 24th
- First matches scheduled on court: 10:00 BST
- Roland Garros, Paris
- Live on ITV and Eurosport
Nadal and Serena feature in our top tips
Due to long rain delays, there has been a slight scheduling shuffle at the 2016 French Open, but day three of the action should finally see the likes of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams kick off their campaigns.
Read on to check out Coral five top tips for Tuesday across the men and women’s singles draws…
Nadal to win opening set 6-0
A resurgent Nadal comes into this French Open in fine form, having won two clay court events this year, as he chases a 10th title at the Paris Grand Slam.
The Spaniard faces Sam Groth first, who inexplicably decided against playing in any clay events leading up to Roland Garros, while has won just four times in 2016 out of 19 matches.
Back King of Clay Nadal, therefore, to whitewash the plummeting Aussie in the first set at a highly enticing 7/1 price.
Serena to win first set 6-1
Another multiple French Open champion takes to the court on Tuesday too, as women’s singles title holder Williams battles with Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova.
The duo have faced each other once before, with the 21 Grand Slam winning great coming out a 6-1 6-1 victor on that occasion in 2013. American Williams is 5/2 to take the opening set by that scoreline again.
Berdych to beat Pospisil 3-1
While Tomas Berdych is a consistent top 10 player, he has lost to first round challenger Vasek Pospisil both times they’ve played.
However, the Canadian has not won on clay in four attempts this year, meaning the Czech should be able to come through this clash. A 3-1 result in favour of Berdych is tempting at 11/4.
Robson to beat Petkovic
Britain’s Laura Robson may be ranked around 300 places below upcoming opponent Andrea Petkovic, but has slowly shown signs that she is back on course to regain her place among the elite.
With four wins to her name this clay court season, she is 11/2 to defeat Petkovic too, as the German has looked out of sorts on the surface in 2016.
Seppi to come through five setter
Andreas Seppi and Ernests Gulbis are very evenly matched, and both enjoy playing on clay having reached the fourth round and quarter-finals respectively in the past.
Latvia’s Gulbis has won four of their five meetings, but crucially lost their only encounter on this surface. This match looks like it’ll go the distance, and Seppi is 5/1 to come through it in five sets.
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