The second major of the 2025 tennis season is here. The French Open officially begins on Sunday, May 25th, when Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek will start to think about defending last year’s titles. Keep reading for some tournament futures for the action in Paris, and make sure you come back to VSiN for daily tennis best bets. I’ll be handicapping the men’s and women’s action all throughout the event. Also, make sure you’re checking out the picks page for all of my action for smaller tournaments and Challengers. Gill Alexander will also be dishing out his favorite picks on that page, but make sure you catch his analysis on A Numbers Game — which is on Monday to Friday on our live VSiN programming. We cover everything here at VSiN, which is why we’re known as “The Sports Betting Network.” Tennis is a big part of that, so subscribe now and get ready for a fun summer.
French Open Women’s Futures
Aryna Sabalenka To Win Quarter 1 (-140 – 2.5 units): I had Sabalenka to win her quarter in Rome, where I thought she had a pretty easy draw. The Belarusian had Marta Kostyuk and Qinwen Zheng in her quarter at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, and she ultimately got eliminated by Zheng in the quarters. But I’m going right back to this play, and I’m expecting a similar run. Sabalenka’s toughest opponent on the way to the quarterfinals will likely be Danielle Collins, and I’m just not sure the American can beat the three-time Grand Slam champion on this surface. And if Sabalenka does get by Collins, she should beat Clara Tauson or Amanda Anisimova to set up a rematch with Zheng. Well, Sabalenka had a 6-0 record against Zheng before losing to the 22-year-old in the Eternal City, and I just don’t think that edge is gone. Sabalenka played a sloppy match in Rome, and she probably was just a little tired and unfocused after a title run in Madrid. Meanwhile, Zheng played an incredible match in that one, and her serve was especially on. She won 82.4% of her first serve points in that match, which is well above her season-long first serve points won percentage of 69.9%. That doesn’t feel like something Zheng will be able to replicate, and Sabaleka should level up on the bigger stage.
Coco Gauff To Win Quarter 4 (-140 – 2.5 units) & Win Tournament (+550 – 1.5 units): Gauff made the finals in both Madrid and Rome, and she did that without reaching her top level. The American was running hot and cold as a server, and her forehand was a bit leaky — as it always seems to be. However, Gauff has now proven that she can make deep runs at big tournaments without playing her best. That said, I trust her to emerge from one of the weakest quarters there is on the men’s or women’s sides. The toughest opponents Gauff will face before the quarterfinals should be either Anna Kalinskaya or Barbora Krejcikova. Kalinskaya just pulled out of Strasbourg, so her health is a question mark. And Krejcikova has been in witness protection since winning Wimbledon last year. So, Gauff should really have no problem at least setting up a match to reach the semis, and I’d like her chances against whoever she sees there. That’s why I’m putting a big play on Gauff to win the quarter. But I’m also going a few steps further with a sizable play on Gauff to win the tournament. I would love the American’s chances in a semi-final showdown with Mirra Andreeva, who she has beaten in straight sets twice in the last three weeks. And even if you don’t like Gauff to beat Sabalenka, or whoever else, in the final, you’ll like having a +550 ticket to play with in that match.
Beatriz Haddad Maia To Reach Quarterfinals (+700 – 0.5 units): I’m taking a chance on Haddad Maia to reach the quarterfinals. The Brazilian has had a terrible season, as she’s just 6-15 since the start of 2025. However, Haddad Maia has always been a good clay-court player. Haddad Maia is 44-35 on the surface in her career, and she’s 12-7 in the 19 matches she has played at Roland Garros. Haddad Maia also made good use of the week before this tournament. Instead of just heading to Paris in awful form, Haddad Maia went to work on her game and find some confidence in Strasbourg. In that tournament, she beat Clara Tauson, Ashlyn Krueger and Emma Navarro. Tauson and Navarro are both top-25 players, and Navarro could be one of Haddad Maia’s opponents this week. Also, Haddad Maia put up a real fight in a 7-6 (7), 1-6, 6-2 loss to Elena Rybakina in the semifinals. It just feels like she has snapped back into form, and a confident Haddad Maia can make a run in this tournament. If she beats Hailey Baptiste in the opening round, don’t be surprised if she does some damage.
NOTE: In the name of transparency, I should mention that I also have 3 units on Swiatek to win this tournament at +110 from a couple of months ago. I thought Swiatek would have an awesome clay-court season, silence all of her doubters and be the odds-on favorite to win her fifth title in Paris. I now feel terrible about that ticket, as Swiatek played poorly on the dirt and is out there to win this at +430 odds. I still won’t rule out the possibility of the Pole winning — she has done so in four of the last five years and is still capable of reaching the highest level on clay of anybody on the WTA Tour — but her draw is miserable.
French Open Men’s Futures
Jannik Sinner To Win Tournament (+250 – 2 units): I jumped on Sinner to win this tournament in the opening set of his beatdown of Casper Ruud in Rome. Unfortunately, you’re not going to be able to find +250. However, there is a +220 out there. At that number, I’d still be jumping to back the Italian. Sinner answered a lot of questions in Rome, where he showed that he’s not particularly rusty, he’s in good shape and that his game translates well to clay. That last one wasn’t a big concern for me heading into the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, but there were people that doubted him on the surface — despite the fact that he looked strong before getting hurt during the 2024 clay-court swing. There are only two questions that Sinner needs to answer now: Can he snap a four-match losing streak to Carlos Alcaraz, and can he do it on the Spaniard’s favorite surface? I think he can.
In the Rome final, Sinner had two break points to win Set 1, but he wasn’t able to cash in on either of them. I’m confident that with a little more time on court, he should be able to do a bit better in big moments. While Sinner doesn’t look rusty, he hasn’t played a big-time match like that in a while. He should be more prepared next time. Also, Sinner’s forehand was a mess in that final, with TennisViz and Tennis Data Innovations giving him his second-lowest forehand Shot Quality (7.6) since the start of 2024. I don’t see that happening again. Sinner’s forehand is the biggest weapon in tennis. And if Sinner is hitting the ball as well as he’s capable of, that should make up for the difference in movement between these two. I also don’t think Alcaraz is capable of reaching the same level he reached against Sinner in that final. Alcaraz has proven that he’s an up-and-down player, but it was all up throughout that one. His shot selection was perfect, and his game plan was on point. I have serious doubts about whether he can play that smart of a match against Sinner again. I actually think Sinner has a better coaching team around him.
Novak Djokovic To Win Quarter 2 (+250): For more on why I’m backing Djokovic to win Quarter 2, check out the feature I wrote on the 24-time Grand Slam champion!
Lorenzo Musetti To Win Quarter 3 (+180 – 2.5 units): Gill Alexander, Drew Dinsick and I all love Musetti to win Quarter 3. None of us spoke before Gill’s Beating The Book French Open MegaPod, but we all lit up when we got to talking about this portion of the draw. Musetti is coming off three semi-final runs in clay-court 1000s, and he looked awesome in all of them. Musetti just has a tremendous ability to cover the court, pound the ball with heavy topspin from both wings and just make magic happen. Now, the Italian is getting better and better at constructing points, and his mental toughness continues to improve. Musetti is just clearly a top-tier clay-courter, and his playing style should make him very difficult to beat in a best-of-five setting. So, with Holger Rune and Taylor Fritz being the two highest-seeded players outside of him in Quarter 3, it’s worth putting a pretty big play on Musetti to make the semifinals. Both of those players have serious limitations and concerns heading into the event.
