Men's French Open Day Two Tips: Cecchinato's experience a test for van Aasche

• Numerous big names start their tournament

• Thiem and Schwartzman up against it

• Cecchinato the Monday pick

Alcaraz and Djokovic expected to ease to wins

Outright market leaders Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic are both in action on day two, with both scheduled on court in the early afternoon in Paris.

Djokovic faces the American, Aleksandar Kovacevic, while Alcaraz is up against the Italian qualifier, Flavio Cobolli. Both are priced up as a virtual bye to progress, but with similar lines to Alcaraz's loss to Fabian Marozsan in Rome - so while they're almost certain to win, there's always that element of very slight chance of an upset.

Jannik Sinner also takes to the courts on Monday, against Alexandre Müller, while Felix Auger-Aliassime faces an intriguing clash against Fabio Fognini.

The Italian, Fognini, is now coming towards the end of his career at the age of 36, but still can show moments of brilliance, and after an uninspiring clay season so far for Auger-Aliassime (2-3 with both wins coming as a very heavy pre-match favourite) and withdrawing in Rome, you can see why the market is cautious pricing him up at a current 1.402/5.

Thiem facing opening round battle

While big names are heavy favourites to progress into round two, there's another whose career is yet to reignite following long-term injury - Dominic Thiem. Runner-up here in 2018 and 2019, losing on both occasions to Rafa Nadal, Thiem is now barely inside the top 100 and hasn't even performed particularly well in Challenger events of late, even losing to Hamad Medjedovic in Mauthausen, who was ranked outside the top 200.

The Austrian is 1.845/6 to get past the Argentine clay-courter, Pedro Cachin, who has never broken the top 50 at the age of 28, and the market price illustrates how much Thiem's level has dropped in the last couple of years. In fact, you could possibly make a case for Cachin as an underdog here, and Thiem is going to face a battle to continue his tournament.

Schwartzman needing injury help against Zapata Miralles

Joining Thiem barely ranked inside the top 100 but being a former top 10 stalwart is Diego Schwartzman, who has had a dreadful season so far. Still only aged 30, Schwartzman's decline appears to have come pretty early, and a glance at his clay data this year shows a big problem on serve, holding under 60% on clay this season.

In theory at least, this should be a mega problem for the Argentine against Bernabe Zapata Miralles, who has some of the best clay return data on tour this season. However, Zapata Miralles picked up an injury in Geneva last week, and his fitness is a big question mark although it's been described as a precautionary decision. If fit, Zapata Miralles would look great value at 1.674/6.

Cecchinato capable of edging van Aasche

Moving on, Luca van Aasche, winner of the junior title here in 2021, is showing some improvement although hasn't really beaten anyone of note this season on clay with the exception of Stan Wawrinka. However, he took a set from an injured Novak Djokovic in Banja Luka and won the Sanremo Challenger several months ago against a fairly mediocre field.

Van Aasche faces the inconsistent Marco Cecchinato on Monday and is chalked up as the 1.9110/11 favourite at the time of writing, which is interesting to see. Cecchinato was 1.654/6 when they met in September last year, winning easily in straight sets in the Lisbon Challenger final.

While you never really know what you are going to get from Cecchinato, he's still a capable operator on clay and has beaten opposition of far greater calibre this season than van Aasche's victories. His clay numbers this season are above 100% combined service/return points won, and I think at an underdog price, Cecchinato looks some value.