It’s been years since John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Andre Agassi, or even Pete Sampras have ruled the tennis courts. U.S. men’s tennis has been absent for the past two decades.
Ever hear of Taylor Fritz or Tommy Paul? Probably not.
The women’s division has more hope for the U.S. You’ve probably heard of Coco Gauff, a worthy successor to the dominant Williams sisters, Serena and Vanessa. But how about Madison Keys? Maybe not.
So, if you have even a passing interest in tennis and a patriotic betting philosophy, who do you get behind? It’s not an easy equation, given the emergence of some new tennis superstars, none of whom hail from the United States.
But let’s not forget, the French Open is probably the most unique matchup of all the tennis majors. It takes an expert at the clay courts to win. Roland Garros is the only major that has these tricky courts, and when you slide to hit a passing shot, you might trip. Who knows? That’s what makes the French Open special.
Man Up
So let’s start with the men’s division.
Sorry if the memory of great U.S. players clouds your memory, but Fritz and Paul come in at +10000 and +25000, respectively, to win the tournament. They’re not sexy, they’re not up and coming, and they’re not likely to win.
So, where do you go? The defending champion? Makes a lot of sense since the defending champion has shown a proclivity to conquer the clay multiple times. Rafael Nadal won the French Open four straight times twice, from 2005-2008 and again from 2017-2020. But he was a prodigy.
So, can Carlos Alcaraz do it even twice? To be sure, he is the favorite at +100. But that’s not likely to get you excited, so what are some of the better tips?
Defending U.S. Open and two-time Australian Open winner Jannik Sinner comes in at +200, while three-time French Open champion Novak Djokovic is +1300. But Djokovic is having an abysmal year, failing to win even one tournament, and has recently changed coaches. Not very inspiring.
Alexander Zverev (+1700) was runner-up to Alcaraz last year and even led in sets 2-1 before falling behind.
But most experts predict an Alcaraz-Skinner final since they are the top two players in the world and are experienced on the clay courts.
Ladies First
On the distaff side, the favorite surprisingly isn’t last year’s winner, Iga Swiatek, who has won at Roland Garros four times. She’s played poorly this year and her odds have reflected that at +340 to win. The favorite is Aryna Sabalenka at +260.
Those two are followed by Coco Gauff (+500), Mirra Andreeva (+550) and Jasmine Paolini (+1400), who was absolutely trounced in last year’s final 6-2 and 6-1, but has had an encouraging year so far. She won the Italian Open earlier this month taking down Gauff 6-4 and 6-2.
Latvian Jeļena Ostapenko won the French Open in 2017 as a 20-year-old and she’s having a great year, including a win on clay when she won the Stuttgart Open in April, defeating the top two seeds Świątek and Sabalenka en route to the title. She’s got a nice number at +3300.
American Madison Keys is +4200 and worth a few bucks since she won this year’s first major, the Australian Open.
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