Roland Garros Expert Tips and Best Bets | May 19

French Open qualifying continues on Tuesday, with the action kicking off at 10am local time and a large number of matches on both the men’s and women’s side of the draw for us to take a look at. Below, you can check out our three best bets for the day’s action at Roland Garros.

We were wrong about Goffin yesterday, with the 35-year-old German comfortably accounting for Chun-Hsin Tseng 6-3 6-1. He now heads into this match against the much less experienced Toby Samuel as the comfortable favourite, but his British opponent is coming off an excellent result of his own, having knocked off the number seven seed Martin Damm Jr in straight sets. Goffin is the more accomplished player and it's hard to see Samuel winning in straight sets, but at better than even money odds with most betting sites he’s a good chance to take one off the German.

There’s no denying that Sloane Stephens is not the player she once was – not even close. A former world number three, US Open winner and French Open finalist, she’s now ranked 361 in the world and has won just two of her eight matches this clay court season. Lisa Pigato, in contrast, won in Madrid and then reached the final in Chiasso just last month. But Stephens has been unlucky to lose a couple of matches to top 100 opponents, while Pigato has played just one player inside the top 150 in that stretch. The form may look lopsided, but Stephens has been playing tougher opponents and will forever remain a Roland Garros finalist. She knows how to win on clay and can keep her French Open dream alive with a win at even money odds on the betting apps.

Ponchet and Hon are similarly ranked players, both well into the 100s, but the French Ponchet is far superior on clay than her Australian opponent. She’s been in strong form this clay season, making the semi-finals at her past two events with wins in that time coming against multiple players significantly more highly ranked than her. Hon, meanwhile, has barely had the opportunity to acclimatise to a clay surface to which she is not naturally suited, playing in just one tournament on the surface so far this year – and in it, she was beaten in the first round by a player outside the top 100. On a different surface this would be a vastly different match, but on her home turf Ponchet will likely be far too good.