French Open Betting / Ben Caudell / 31 May 2009 / Leave a comment

After a day of upsets and fruitful betting at Roland Garros, Ben Caudell sifts through today's slim pickings to find the best bets...

A shock defeat for Novak Djokovic has opened up the bottom half of the draw.

German Philip Kohlschreiber recorded his biggest win of his career in a Grand Slam event ousting the third favourite in straight sets 6-4 6-4 6-4 on the Roland Garros clay. This was the first time in four previous appearances that the 25-year-old has been past the second round; he quickly set about dominating from the back of the court and at the net managing to dictate the points to full effect. Djokovic has always been adverse to hot weather and Saturday was no exception. The Serbian seemed to struggle to find any inner strength to fight his way back into the match which looked a losing battle after Kohlschreiber advanced into a two set lead.

Yesterday's tips provided us with some fruitful pickings. We were successful in backing Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to defeat Christophe Rochus 3-0, by more than 5.5 Games and Gael Monfils duly rewarded us as we backed him to win by more than 4.5 Games.

There are few matches to choose from for Sunday's selections so I will keep it short and sweet.

Today's Selection:

Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) v Fernando Verdasco (ESP)
This is probably the most exciting match of the day. Nikolay Davydenko has a 4-1 head-to-head series lead over the Spaniard. Their last match was back in 2006 and Fernando Verdasco has improved considerably since then, winning his last 17 out of 23 matches, cementing himself amongst the world's elite. Davydenko has returned from a spate of injuries and is starting to look at his best, defeating Stanislas Wawrinka in the previous round, Diego Junqueira in the second round and Stefan Koubek in the first.

However, knowing that Verdasco's only defeats this year have been against the very best players in the world and the fact that Nikolay Davydenko has recently been struggling with injury problems, I have to side with a player I believe will eventually become a Grand Slam winner and a player who's commitment and dedication can never be questioned.

Selection: Back Fernando Verdasco @ [1.6] to win match