This year’s French Open kicked off at Roland Garros on September 21st, and runs to October 11th, culminating in the Men’s Singles Final, where whatever happens, we’ll witness tennis history.
Who will win? Let’s look at the sportsbetting odds for the 2020 French Open tennis and pick out a favourite, middle-odds bet and outsider to cheer on in Paris.
The Favourites
in last year’s final, Rafael Nadal beat Dominic Thiem 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 in a thrilling last match. The action was spectacular and at the time confirmed why Dominic Thiem was not a Grand Slam winner and Rafael Nadal had a dozen and a half to his name.
Thiem has won the U.S. Open since then, of course, triumphing in Flushing Meadow just last week, but can he do it less than a month later in France? Nadal leads the two men’s head-to-head 9-5, although the last match between the two men saw Thiem win in a four-set Australian Open quarter-final victory 7-6, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6.
Rafael Nadal is rightly the favourite as play begins in Roland Garros, at best odds of Evens at the time of going to press. Novak Djokovic has a better head-to-head record against Nadal, leading 29-26, but hasn’t beat Nadal on Clay since 2016, and with the recent controversies around him creating something of a random element to a previously highly consistent bet, we’d lean towards the Spaniard against either of these two closest opponents to Nadal.
That’s not to say that Dominic Thiem at 10/3 or Novak Djokovic at 3/1 are awful bets, and do represent longer odds by some distance, but neither are reliable against Nadal and in particular not at the French. Nadal’s entire year is built around winning at Roland Garros and he will be spurred on by knowing that if he does so, then he will draw level with his great frenemy Roger Federer on 20 Grand Slam titles, a feat that would have been impossible to imagine some time ago.
The Middle Ranks
It would be fair to say that the pool of players who are yet to win a Grand Slam but for the purposes of this year’s French Open, we’ll focus on just three of them. Stefanos Tsitsipas (20/1) is a major threat for this event, having proved his consistency at the tail-end of last year and rounded off some of the sharpest edges of his game into a style that now suits all surfaces. The Greek player is our tip of these players at those odds and could be a very profitable winner.
Daniil Medvedev (33/1) could be a big threat too, especially given he got so close to winning in the U.S. Open before losing out in the semi-finals when expected to progress. He lost to Thiem in New York and we think he might do so again on the clay, with it being more of a preferred surface for the Austrian to the Russian.
Alexander Zverev (40/1) got very close to that first Grand Slam in New York, being just one set away from claiming the title and he’ll want to get one at the very next attempt – and the final chance of 2020. That could prove tricky, however, and often, having come so close, a player of his age can take two or three steps back before pushing forward past that level. Look at Thiem and you’ll see why Zverev might not be the value that he looks to be here. We tipped Tsitsipas for a Grand Slam title this year and we’re sticking by that tip with just one tournament instead of two to go, Wimbledon having been cancelled.
The Outsiders
Both Stan Wawrinka (60/1) and Felix Auger-Aliasime (66/1) represent an outside shot at Roland Garros and could yet surprise tipsters, but Argentinian Diego Schwartmann (50/1) has what it takes to win gruelling five-set matches and with the standards so close this time due to the leveller that is the global CVOID-19 pandemic, we think the Argentine could be a good player to back and then possibly cash out on if he reaches the semi-finals or even quarter-finals stage.
Whoever wins the French Open, it is sure to provide many more talking points, controversial clips and possibly moments of real drama such as those involving Novak Djokovic in New York. If so, we’ll be on hand to help you make the most of them in the sportsbetting market as a result right here at Calvin Ayre.
