French Open best bets for Monday, May 27th
It’s time for the second major of this exciting 2024 tennis season, as the top ATP and WTA players in the world will be in Paris for the 2024 French Open. The action at Roland Garros should be stellar over the course of this fantastic tournament. I already went ahead and previewed some of the action in my French Open tournament preview, where I broke down the draws and gave out some of my favorite futures. But I’ll be doing my daily tennis best bets here. So, keep reading for some of my favorite plays for Day 2 of the French Open, which will be played on Monday, May 27th.
I’d also strongly suggest coming back to this story throughout the day. I try to write up as many matches as I can in advance, but it’s hard to do that in an international sport. I also like to throw in some Challenger-level bets. That said, I’ll probably be adding picks to the bottom of the story. I’ll also throw them on the Pro Picks page.
MORE: Check out our Pro Picks page for everything our experts are betting!
2024 Record: 321-331 (+35.19 units)
Hugo Gaston vs. Ben Shelton
When I did my pre-tournament preview, I also added some early Round 1 plays that I liked. Backing Shelton at -188 was one of them, so I’m including it here. Now that this is up at -245, it’s hard to suggest taking this on the moneyline. But Shelton would be a good parlay anchor for you to use today.
I know Gaston will be playing in front of a home crowd here, but he was playing some lousy tennis before the small tournament in Lyon last week. And while Gaston is definitely a guy that prefers playing on clay, Shelton has been better than expected on this surface. And overall, the American just has a certain firepower that Gaston will have trouble matching. We just saw Gaston struggle in a similar match, as he lost to Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in Lyon. Well, Shelton has even more weapons. I also don’t think the American will have trouble dealing with the crowd. He loves playing in front of an energetic crowd, whether it’s for or against him.
With all of that in mind, if you want to get a piece of Shelton, look for players in the -300 range that can bring these odds closer to -115 or so.
Bet: Shelton ML (-188)
Rafael Nadal vs. Alexander Zverev
For my pick on this blockbuster opening-round match, click here for my in-depth analysis on it! With this potentially being Nadal’s last French Open, I’ll likely do individual match previews for him until he is eliminated.
Thiago Seyboth Wild vs. Gael Monfils
The French crowd adores Gael Monfils. That is always something that is tough to navigate, as Monfils plays high-level tennis when he has serious crowd support. But Monfils is just 2-4 on clay since the start of the 2024 season. He also had to withdraw from Lyon last week, citing a fever and “some health problems” as the reasons. And if Monfils, who has already had a pretty lousy season thus far, isn’t at 100% in this match, he’s going to run into a lot of trouble.
Seyboth Wild is a proven clay-court player at this point in his career, and he’s 11-11 on the dirt over the last 52 weeks. The Brazilian has played a lot of tennis on this surface in the past year, while Monfils can’t say the same. That’s a big reason why so many players get tripped up on clay — and especially in this tournament. It’s hard to win on the dirt when you’re not consistently playing matches on it. So, look for Seyboth Wild to have a small edge in longer rallies, where he will look to utilize topspin and get some mistakes out of Monfils. But Seyboth Wild also has the ability to hit winners, so he’ll go for his shots when the opportunities present themselves. Monfils has also been struggling with his serve lately. That’s another big problem heading into this match. Seyboth Wild is a rock-solid returner on clay.
Overall, I just have a hard time believing that this version of Monfils can beat a clay-court specialist that is in his prime. That’s why I’m willing to play Seyboth Wild, even at a pretty lousy number.
Bet: Seyboth Wild ML (-164)
Mattia Bellucci vs. Frances Tiafoe
This is a match that I was excited to bet when seeing the draw. I’m a big Tiafoe fan and thought that him wearing a Joakim Noah jersey during his Saturday practice session was a nice touch. But Tiafoe has had a miserable clay-court season thus far. Of course, Tiafoe did make the final in Houston last month, but American clay-court tennis isn’t the same as it is overseas. And Tiafoe is just 1-4 in the five matches he has played on the dirt in Europe since then. Some of those losses were ugly ones, too. A straight-set loss to Arthur Rinderknech in Lyon showed that Tiafoe is just very out of form right now. With that in mind, I like Bellucci to cover a big game spread here.
Bellucci is 5-1 in his last six clay-court matches and he happens to be coming off an impressive run through qualifiers. Bellucci defeated Matteo Martineau, Lloyd Harris and Alejandro Moro Canas to get to this point. And while backing a qualifier might not seem fun, it does mean that the player has gotten used to the conditions already and has proven they can win matches on these courts. And the beauty of this is that I’m not even asking Bellucci to win. I’m just looking for the lefty to stay competitive.
Tiafoe’s serve will be a weapon in this match. But Bellucci should be able to get into a few of the Tiafoe service games. And overall, Bellucci utilizes spin very nicely, so I trust him to do a good job of constructing points and making Tiafoe uncomfortable. That should give Bellucci a slight advantage in longer rallies. So, he’ll just need to find a way to serve well himself. All in all, I just see Bellucci winning a set here and really pushing the American.
Bet: Bellucci +6.5 Games (-128 – 1.5 units)
Sunday’s Plays
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