French Open Daily Tips: A pair of bets on the fourth day of action at Roland Garros

French Open Betting / Ben Caudell / 27 May 2009 / Leave a Comment

Ben Caudell has the pick of the bets on Wednesday at the French Open.

The women's first round draw was concluded last night with five of the top 10 players in action. There were straightforward wins for Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Dementieva and Caroline Wozniacki.

The closest we came to a first round upset was the match between number two seed Serena Williams and Klara Zakopalova. In one of the last matches of the day, the American, who had lost four times in a row coming into this match-up, one of those was against Zakopalova in the first round of Marbella back in April this year ,struggled to finish off the Czech, squandering five match points at 6-3 5-3.

Klara gained confidence from Serena's implosion and duly obliged in taking the second set tie break, over £300,000 having already been matched at [1.01]. Zakopalova then broke early in the third set to establish a 2-1 40-0 lead on serve, at this stage the Americans price shot up to a staggering [2.38]. However, the potential upset was short lived as Serena broke back and then managed to win the next three games in a row to take a 5-2 third set advantage. To everyone's astonishment Zakopalova fought back once again, however it was too little too late as the relieved Serena Williams eventually won 6-4 in the final set.

Today's Selections:

Lucie Hradecka (CZE) v Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP)
Last week's Strasbourg International finalist Lucie Hradecka went through to the second round of the French Open for the first time in her career after defeating qualifier Yvonne Meusburger in straight sets 6-1 6-2. The 24-year-old Czech, playing her first ever Grand Slam tournament, will have her work cut out against the more experienced (though younger) Carla Suarez Navarro.
Navarro is playing her second French Open tournament after reaching the quarter-finals last year and has an 8-1 singles record at Rolland Garros, her only loss coming against Jankovic. The Spaniard has had a patchy run of form leading up to Rolland Garros, losing in the first round of Madrid (Na Li), the second round at Rome (Nadia Petrova) and first round of Stuttgart (Victoria Azarenka), all Premier Events, however she has also reached the semi-finals and final of the lower tiered events in Barcelona and Marbella back in April this year. With this being Navarro's favourite tournament of the year and on her premier surface, I cant see her faltering against the lesser known Lucie Hradecka.
Selections: Back Carla Suarez Navarro @ [1.52] to win match; Back Navarro 2-1 @ [4.5]


Nicolas Massu (CHI) v Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI)
Both these players came through their first round matches in five sets. Wawrinka is lucky to even be in the second round, having fought back from the brink of defeat against Frenchman Nicolas Devilder, and will be hoping for a better performance against clay court veteran Massu. The pair have met on two previous occasions, both matches in 2005 at the French Open and US Open. Surprisingly enough Massu won on the hard and Wawrinka on the clay!!
The Chilean's form has been pretty diabolical of late, 3-7 on clay, so I don't expect an upset against the Swiss number two. Wawrinka is one of the mentally toughest players in today's game and very rarely loses in five sets though, he looked a little shaky at times against Devilder in the previous round. Wawrinka will win this match but I would like to see Massu put up some sort of fight and possibly win a set.
Selection: Back Over 33.5 Games @ [2.0], Four Sets @ [3.4] and Wawrinka to Win @ [1.14]