Roland Garros Expert Tips and Best Bets | May 21

Just one match remains between the qualifiers still standing and the French Open main draw, with 16 men and 16 women set to advance through to event proper. Those deciding matches kick off on Thursday, 21st of May, and below you can take a look at our best bets among them.

August Holmgren has had a solid clay court campaign so far, making a semi-final and a final in two of his last three tournaments and picking up two straight set wins at Roland Garros this week. But while he and Diaz Acosta are similarly ranked, there is no denying the superiority of the latter on this surface. The Argentinian has had a dominant season on the Challenger Tour so far, incredibly winning three of his seven tournaments prior to the French Open harking back to February of this year. In each of those events he has won more matches in straight sets than not, and while Holmgren has been decent of late, there should be a clear class differential in this one.

Toby Samuel has not been handed an easy path through the qualifiers, but he has handled what he has been given with aplomb. He entered his first match as a significant underdog against one of the highest ranked players in the draw in Martin Damm Jr and promptly beat him in straight sets, before coming back from 1-0 down against former top 10 player David Goffin. He now gets a chance to earn a well-deserved spot in the French Open main draw against Argentinian Gonzalez Bueno. Bueno has had a solid clay court season to date exclusively in South America, but until he beat 193rd ranked Vitaliy Sachko this week, hadn’t beaten a single top-200 player this season. Samuel is well-placed at decent odds with major betting sites to win this one.

Though she’s tumbled dramatically down the rankings from where she once was, Sloane Stephens remains a former French Open champion whose best tennis is significantly better than her opponents in the qualifiers. She’s reminded everyone what she’s capable of this week so far with two dominant straight sets victories, the latter against the more highly fancied Lisa Pigato, and she will be confident in her ability to continue on her winning ways against Leyre Romero Gormaz – a decent player, but the best of whom can’t rival that of Stephens. At comfortably better than even money on the betting apps, she’s a great bet to win in straight sets.