French Open Daily Double: Coric and Bedene value round two underdogs

It's been a good start to the French Open so far, with six of my seven picks winning, and the daily double landing on Tuesday.

Round two of the men's singles begins on Wednesday and a quick glance at the historical stats for this round reveals that on average (over the last nine years) just 19% of the betting underdogs have won.

In the last three editions, however, the average is 29%, so hopefully that upward trend will continue in the 2022 edition.

Indeed, in two of the last three years you'd have made a profit by backing every underdog in round two, while on average 40% of the matches in this round in the last nine years have featured at least one tie break.

Of the round two matches on Wednesday, I like the look of two underdog in particular in terms of betting value and the first of these is Borna Coric against Grigor Dimitrov.

Clearly this is a risky play given the injury problems that Coric has had over the last couple of seasons, but having come through a four setter against clay grinder Carlos Taberner in round one Coric will have the confidence that his body is now ready for battle again.

After a slow start in that Taberner match, Coric won the last three sets comfortably and he's the sort of opponent that Dimitrov may well struggle to hit through in slow conditions on the clay.

Indeed, Coric was priced up as a 1.528/15 favourite the last time that this pair were slated to meet at the US Open in 2019 (Coric withdrew injured) and I'm far from convinced about Dimitrov in these conditions.

The Bulgarian has been playing well lately, but his record here at the French isn't great and it's almost identical to that of Coric.

Dimitrov has a hold/break total of 105 (Coric also 105) and a combined service points won/return points won total of 102.5 (Coric 102.2), so there's nothing between them over the course of their careers at this tournament.

Dimi is favourite based on Coric's recent injury, but that Taberner match will have done Coric the world of good and I can't see this being the easy win for Dimitrov that the prices suggest.

The +1.5 sets on Coric at 2.255/4 will be the first leg of Wednesday's daily double.

Another player on the comeback trail is Aljaz Bedene and we profited from the daft odds about him in his opening match against Christopher O'Connell and now he faces another man that we backed in round one, Pablo Cuevas.

Cuevas simply had way too much clay nous for the inexperienced Jenson Brooksby, but has that win made Cuevas too short for this clash with Bedene?

If Bedene is back to full fitness - and the O'Connell match would suggest that he's not far off - the price on Cuevas here is too short.

There's a hint of recency bias about this price, with Cuevas' win over Brooksby uppermost in the layers' minds, but if we look at the Uruguayan's form lately it's been far from impressive and his record in the French Open isn't great either.

If Bedene is back to full fitness - and the O'Connell match would suggest that he's not far off - the price on Cuevas here is too short

Cuevas has lost 12 of his 17 main level matches played in the last year and on clay alone he's won only three of his last 11 at main level.

At the French Open, Cuevas has never been past the last-32, and only three times in his entire career has he won back-to-back completed matches at this tournament, which is surprising given his prowess on the red dirt.

The 2.56/4 about Bedene winning the match looks fair value and will be the second leg of Wednesday's daily double and if successful it'll pay around 5.63463/100.