French Open Men's and Women's Singles
The second Grand Slam of the season takes the players to Paris for the French Open, where Novak Djokovic and Iga Swiatek will be hoping to successfully defend their crowns.
Djokovic, a 24-time Grand Slam champion, claimed his third French Open title last season but his recent form has been patchy and Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have emerged as serious threats to his dominance on the ATP Tour.
Throw in 14-time Roland Garros hero Rafael Nadal and in-form pair Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas and it looks like an open year with a compelling case able to be made for many.
There are fewer contenders queuing up to challenge Swiatek’s superiority in the women’s draw, with the Polish phenomenon already chasing a fourth clay-court major despite still being only 22 years of age.
Swiatek, having won warm-up tournaments in Madrid and Rome, looks a cut above the rest of the field and is likely to take a good deal of stopping.
French Open outright betting tips
Tip 1 – Alexander Zverev to win @ 13/2
Tip 2 – Stefanos Tsitsipas to win @ 7/1
Tip 3 – Iga Swiatek to win @ 4/6
Tip 4 – Qinwen Zheng each-way @ 30/1
Tip 1 – Alexander Zverev to win @ 13/2
With Djokovic yet to win a title this season and Alcaraz and Sinner having both had their preparations disrupted by recent injuries, there are reasons to swim against the tide.
Djokovic is the defending champion and a 24-time Grand Slam winner, although only three of those successes have come in Paris and he has suffered defeats to Luca Nardi, Casper Ruud and Alejandro Tabilo in his three events prior to his latest start at the Geneva Open.
Zverev is in the Serb’s half of the draw and, despite being handed a horror first-round showdown with 14-time French Open champion Nadal, the German looks the player to focus on.
Zverev has made the semi-finals at Roland Garros in each of the last three seasons and goes into this year’s competition in arguably even better touch, having claimed a Masters 1000 title in Rome last time out.
That means Zverev has lost only three of his 13 matches in this clay-court season and it should be sooner rather than later when the 2020 US Open runner-up makes his Grand Slam breakthrough.
An opening-round showdown with Nadal, in what is expected to be the Spaniard’s farewell French Open, looks daunting. But given the standard Nadal has been producing on court, it is tough to see how he can live with a legitimate title contender such as Zverev.
From there, the German would be full of confidence and the draw could even open up further in Zverev’s favour.
Tip 2 – Stefanos Tsitsipas to win @ 7/1
The other outright interest worth having is Tsitsipas, who may have the beating of Alcaraz and Sinner in the bottom half of the draw with that pair having had to withdraw from recent warm-up events due to injury.
Tsitsipas tends to come into his own during the clay-court campaign and that has been the case again this season, with the Greek star winning the Monte Carlo Masters in April before finishing a valiant runner-up to Ruud in his follow-up event in Barcelona.
Tsitsipas was runner-up to Djokovic at Roland Garros in 2021, having led by two sets, and he has also made the last four and last eight there in the last four years, highlighting his love for the Parisian slow courts.
The Athens ace has lost only three of his 16 clay-court matches this season and is a big-game player who could, with some luck along the way, experienced a first taste of Grand Slam glory.
Tip 3 – Iga Swiatek to win @ 4/6
It is virtually impossible to oppose Swiatek in her pursuit of a third straight French Open crown and a fourth in five years, especially as she avoids her fiercest rivals Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina until the final.
The Polish star is utterly dominant when operating on her beloved slow terrain and that has been evident this season too, with Swiatek having claimed back-to-back titles in Madrid and Rome.
In the Italian capital last time out, Swiatek didn’t drop a single set in her six singles matches and that included accounting for world number three Cori Gauff and second seed Sabalenka.
Having lost only two of her last 26 matches, it is tough to see how anyone can lay a glove on Swiatek at Roland Garros and she is rightly a warm odds-on favourite.
Tip 4 – Qinwen Zheng each-way @ 30/1
While Swiatek should sail through the top half of the draw, there is potential for a surprise finalist and, just as she did at the Australian Open in January, Qinwen Zheng could provide that.
Zheng would have learned plenty from her runner-up effort to Sabalenka in Melbourne and her recent run to the quarter-finals in Rome shows she is a decent clay-court operator, too.
The 21-year-old made the fourth round of the French Open on her tournament debut two years ago and, being a far more complete player these days, she could outrun her odds with what looks a pretty favourable early draw.