The men’s French Open 2019 second round commences today with twenty matches scheduled to be played today weather permitting. It’s been a great start to the tournament for home grown French players with eleven reaching the second round including four underdog Wild Cards and qualifiers.
There’s a few of the big guns and top ten seeds in action today including defending champion and second seed Nadal who faces another German qualifier Maden for the first time, third seed Federer faces German Lucky Loser Otte for the first time, fourth seed Thiem (advised 7/1) faces another young gun Russian Bublik for the first time and sixth seed Tsitsipas faces Bolivian Dellien for the first time and it’s a miracle Dellien is even taking part considering he packed the game in a few years ago in his early twenties.
Seventh seed Nishikori faces veteran Tsonga in a potential blockbuster match today and if it’s like there only ever meeting on clay which was at this tournament back in 2015 where in for a real treat as it was a five-set thriller which Tsonga won. Eleventh seed Cilic faces the unseeded Bulgarian and former top ten-star Dimitrov which has the potential to produce a blockbuster encounter. However, the Croatian leads the head-to-head 4-1 an should win comfortably today given Dimitrov’s form and confidence at present.
Thirteenth seed Coric will aim to build on his solid first round win against another unseeded player this time Harris from South Africa and this will be there first encounter on the ATP Tour. Seventeenth seed Schwartzman (Advised 12/1 2ndQuarter Winner) faces another potential banana skin today against compatriot Mayer who won there only previous encounter in three sets at Hamburg last year.
There’s several other matches today that have the potential to produce some high-quality entertaining encounters like Struff and Albot who are both unseeded but have been in great form so far this year. Struff leads the head-to-head 3-1 and is made the clear favourite by the layers but I think he will have t work hard for the win and this has the potential to go to five sets if both players are fully fit.
One of the emerging clay stars of the future Londero from Argentina faces French veteran Gasquet for the first time today and the layers aren’t underestimating Londero. This suggests it could be a close one that has the potential to go to five sets and I would not be surprised if Londero causes a small upset today.
Two NextGen clay stars twenty ninth seed Italian Berrettini and the unseeded Rudd from Norway clash heads for the first time today in what should be a highly competitive and entertaining encounter as both players are specialist players on the surface. Berrettini is expected to win and is favourite as he’s won two ATP 250 clay titles this and last season, but Rudd will be no pushover given his potential and talent and this match could easily go the distance if Rudd can make some in roads on Berrettinni’s service games.
Another match that has the potential to be a blockbuster and five set thriller is between former French Open winner and twenty fourth seed Wawrinka and emerging NextGen clay star Garin from Chile. This is there first meeting on the main tour and on clay form so far this year Garin could easily cause the upset as he’s won two ATP 250 clay tournaments at Houston and Munich and the final at Sao Paulo beating world class clay courters like Berrettini, Cecchinato, Zverev and Schwartzman.
