We will be in for a long, glorious day of tennis on Thursday at Roland Garros after rain on Wednesday pushed some second-round encounters back a day.
On a loaded slate, it's a little easier to spot the lines with glaring value, and I'll be looking to a grizzled underdog to make a mark on his match against a top player while I back an under-appreciated short favorite.
Here are my Roland Garros betting picks for Fritz vs Lajovic and Kokkinakis vs Zeppieri.
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Roland Garros Betting Picks
Taylor Fritz (-450) vs Dusan Lajovic (+350)
8 a.m. ET
I feel dirty here, because I've been the biggest cheerleader for "Claylor Fritz" over the past two seasons. He's made a ton of great strides on the clay, and this year he took another step forward with deep runs in Madrid and Rome leading up to Roland Garros.
Well, I think this match is going to be a little tricky for Fritz. He's historically struggled at the Grand Slam level, and the French Open has easily been the hardest on him with no fourth-round appearances in seven tries. He's been better on clay over the past two years, but he's still lost 11 total matches, and this one could a very hard one for him to get through.
Dusan Lajovic has fully embraced being a clay specialist over the last three years, playing nearly 90 matches on the surface and coming through with a winning record in each season. Though his history at Roland Garros in those campaigns is even worse than Fritz, he's built up a head of steam coming into this one with a trip to the semis in Barcelona weeks ago that took him past the likes of Diego Schwartzman, Ugo Humbert, Alejandro Davidovich-Fokina and Arthur Fils before he took a set off of possibly the best clay player in the world, Stefanos Tsitsipas.
We know when Lajovic is on, he's a very live underdog on clay, and it would appear he's playing some of his best tennis after an impressive first-round win over Roman Safiullin. I think he'll keep his level high for this one and give Fritz the same kind of push that Federico Coria did last round, though in this case I don't think he'll fade away after potentially taking a set here.
Pick: Lajovic +6.5 games (-116)
Thanasi Kokkinakis (-135) vs Giulio Zeppieri (+110)
8 a.m. ET
I'm just not understanding what's happening with this line. Kokkinakis played a five-set match in the first round, so yes — he's going to be the slightest bit tired here, but that doesn't explain the amount of money pouring in on Zeppieri.
The 22-year-old Italian is a fine player, and nothing more. He's gone 7-7 on clay across all levels, which includes three wins in qualifying here in Paris and a win over Adrian Mannarino which saw him drop a set to possibly the worst clay-court player in the top 100. I'm just not seeing anything to inspire confidence he can win a match over a player who is decidedly better at tennis, even on a surface that isn't favorable to him.
Kokkinakis built up some form leading into Roland Garros with a title on the ATP Challenger Tour and entered into a whopping seven draws, and I do think he's poised to come away with a couple of wins over the course of this tournament. He can find lines and angles that Zeppieri can't, and I expect he will be able to hit through the Italian to come away with a rather convincing win and prove the oddsmakers (and bettors) wrong here.
Pick: Kokkinakis ML (-135)
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