We're finally caught up on the second round in Paris. It only took a jam-packed order of play on Thursday and play from many into the night to get it done.
Onto the final 32 we go. Opportunities abound for a few players who may not have had the best clay seasons or wouldn't expect to make the second week at Roland Garros.
Here are my picks for Anastasia Potapova vs Xinyu Wang and Ons Jabeur vs Leylah Fernandez in my Friday French Open predictions for May 31.
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Friday French Open Predictions
Anastasia Potapova (-225) vs Xinyu Wang (+190)
6:30 a.m. ET
First Viktorija Golubic and now Wang. Potapova is catching some breaks with how this draw is panning out for her and she took full advantage on Thursday, defeating the Swiss in relatively short order.
Now taking on another player that hasn't done much in her career on the clay, I think this may be a spot where we look to back her and lay the games. Wang came through against Viktoriya Tomova, but the Bulgarian is a tad underpowered from the baseline and can't really exploit the lack of movement or sliding from Wang and she had the time she needed to dictate and stand up on the baseline.
Enter Potapova. The world No. 41 hasn't been great of late, but she has that big power from the baseline to match Wang and while she'd likely also prefer the comforts of hard courts, she's more proficient on the dirt for my money.
I'm not going large here, as the Potapova serve is the one concern I'd have if she were to fail to win by margin.
Picks: Potapova -3.5 games (-118 via FanDuel)
Ons Jabeur (-150) vs Leylah Fernandez (+120)
8:30 a.m. ET
Was I burned last round backing Jabeur? Absolutely. Am I going back to the well this time? You're darn right I am.
The reasons are three-fold. First, there's an overvaluation on Fernandez here. The Canadian southpaw was a huge favorite last round, and while she came through I struggle to see why she was considered to be so dominant entering the match. She's played .500 tennis all year and when looking at quality of competition, about half her wins are completely irrelevant when it comes to the third round of a Slam against a struggling but improving top player.
The second reason is that Jabeur is still being priced as the player that was being beaten by Lesia Tsurenko, Katie Volynets and clay courter Elina Avanesyan on a hard court. Though she's not exactly on fire, she has turned it around to an extent, reaching the quarters in Madrid and picking up a pair of wins this week, the second of which was against a strong clay courter.
That brings me to my final point. Do I think Camila Osorio is a better player on clay than the Canadian Jabeur plays on Friday? Probably not (though I could make a case for it), but I do think she presents a tougher matchup. See, both Osorio and Fernandez play incredibly solid tennis from the baseline and have sneaky good forehands. The biggest difference between them? Osorio is faster, defends better and commits fewer errors than Fernandez. That makes all the difference against Jabeur, whose struggles tend to come from her own error-filled patches of play. If you're going to gift a few of those back, you're going to make her job a lot easier.
Jabeur is a much larger favorite in my book, so I'll take both the moneyline and the spread.
Picks: Jabeur ML (-150 via bet365) | Jabeur -2.5 games (+100 via DraftKings)
