It's time to close out the opening round of action at the French Open, as Tuesday sees the remaining players take the court for their opening matches.
Let's take a look at a pair of women's first rounders that are worth betting on, with matches featuring Coco Gauff and Rebeka Masasrova, as well as Olga Danilovic and Kateryna Baindl.
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French Open Round 1 Picks
Coco Gauff (-415) vs Rebeka Masarova (+315)
7 a.m. ET
It's been a tough 2023 season for Gauff, and things won't get any easier, as the teenager kicks off her defense of well over 1,000 points as last year's finalist in Paris.
Her draw did her no favors either, as she goes up against the big-serving Rebeka Masarova right off the bat.
She'll need her forehand to be much better than it has been in months, as it's often the wing that opponents with strong serves and groundstrokes target to pin her back on defense and eventually elicit errors from her racquet.
Even her more reliable backhand has been a bit shaky in recent times and her form has been abysmal this spring.
She's won just three matches in as many events, beating relatively weaponless players like Irene Burillo Escorihuela and Yulia Putintseva, while sneaking past Veronika Kudermetova in Stuttgart. As for her losses? Absolute beatdowns at the hands of Anastasia Potapova, Paula Badosa and Marie Bouzkova – the latter being far from a player comfortable on clay.
With Masarova's ability to serve, hit big on her forehand and with a few decent wins this clay season against Clara Tauson, Mayar Sherif and Donna Vekic, she's shown me enough to believe she could trouble the current iteration of Gauff.
With a breakeven percentage below 25%, I'm happy to back her to do just that on Tuesday.
Picks: Over 20.5 games (-105 via Caesars) | Masarova ML (+315 via FanDuel)
Olga Danilovic (-435) vs Kateryna Baindl (+330)
6:30 a.m ET
If there's a larger mismatch in current form out there in the opening round, I'm open to hearing it. For me, this is it.
The young Serb enters the main draw on a tear, having won a high-level ITF event in Madrid and then breezing through qualifying to reach this point.
On the flip side, Baindl has struggled mightily since the winter months. She hasn't won a match since January 10th and hasn't won a set since the 28th of that same month.
There have been injury issues along the way, but the lack of play has kept her from being remotely competitive when she has taken the court.
That doesn't bode well when she's taking on someone that's won eight straight matches, 16 straight sets and has won those eight matches by an average of 7.5 games. Her own average margin of defeat being just over six games in her last three matches doesn't help either.
Finally, the matchup also really favors the 22-year old. Not only is she in better form and healthier, but she's got the much bigger game, is able to hold serve more easily than someone like Baindl and plays an aggressive enough game style to take advantage of lighter servers and take away control of points in their service games.
We saw her beat the likes of Marina Bassols Ribera by 10 games, Burillo Escorihuela by 12, Sara Sorribes Tormo (someone who has nearly perfected the defensive baseline style in the women's game) by seven and Erika Andreeva in French Open qualifying by six. Winning by margin is in her wheelhouse when playing someone with a game style that Baindl possesses.
Give me Danilovic to cruise into the second round.
Pick: Under 20.5 (-125 via DraftKings)
