French Open Betting / Sean Calvert / 25 May 2008 /

Sean Calvert on some short prices that certainly aren't bankers

Roland Garros is upon us once more and as usual, there are some interesting looking match-ups in the opening round of the red dirt slam.

Several of the opening encounters look worthy of an upset and therefore, I've picked my top five value wagers in the men's first round draw and they are as follows.

Firstly, Richard Gasquet is in a dreadful run of form at the moment and he looks like he could lose to just about anyone on tour right now, which if you factor in his poor record at the French Open, he looks well worth opposing.

The home favourite has been beaten in the first round on three of his six starts at Roland Garros and he's never made it further than the third round.

Last year he lost in the second round to Kristof Vliegen in straight sets and his opponent this time, countryman Florent Serra also holds a 1-0 head-to-head record over Gasquet; so all-in-all Serra is worth a punt at the likely odds of around [3.25].

Another Frenchman who may struggle to justify favouritism is Marc Gicquel in his match against Romanian, Victor Troicki.

Gicquel only seems to play well on the indoor carpet these days - particularly in Lyon where he always plays well - but he's only ever won one match at Roland Garros and Troicki has been in decent form on the Challenger circuit on clay and should represent good value at around [2.5].

Radek Stepanek, despite possessing an unlikely ability to get engaged to female players much younger and considerably more attractive than himself, also has a tendency to lose to Frenchmen at Roland Garros.

The Czech 'entertainer' has gone out three years in a row to home favourites and this year could be the same as he faces an in-form Gilles Simon in the first round.

Simon is a player to be on when he's on a hot streak and his run to the final in Casablanca, combined with the fact that Stepanek hasn't been seen since retiring with heatstroke in Rome is enough to suggest a wager at around [2.5].

The next potential surprise could lie in the match-up between Nicolas Lapentti and Janko Tipsarevic.

These two fought out a tough battle in Monte Carlo a month ago and as is a regular occurrence with the Serbian, Tipsarevic has been struggling with injury since and is not to be relied upon at [1.36].

He retired against Ernests Gulbis in Barcelona and was thrashed 6-2, 6-1 by Albert Montanes in Hamburg in his last match, so the experienced Ecuadorian, who has reached the last 16 at Roland Garros in the past, must be worth a wager at around 3.0.

Finally, Jurgen Melzer should never be 1.33 to beat anyone and after a dreadful year, culminating in straight sets defeats in each of his three clay events prior to this week - the last of which was to world number 214, Simon Greul - he looks ripe for another first round exit.
Aussie, Peter Luczak is no great shakes either, but at least he's put together some decent results on clay of late and he could be worth a bet if Melzer has one of his frequent meltdowns.
Luczak is around 3.5 to cause an upset over a player ranked only 10 places lower than his opponent.

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