Del Potro and Djokovic to star on day six of the French Open
Published:Novak Djokovic faces a serious test of his clay court credentials in Thursday’s French Open third round tie.
Juan Martin del Potro is yet to lose on clay this season – he withdrew from a Madrid Open match with Nadal before it started – and because of his injury problems is a false ranking at 26 in the world.
Victor Hanescu’s retirement meant Djokovic’s unbeaten run stretched to 41 games (39 in 2011) and the Serb is the 1/7 favourite to beat del Potro, but the Argentine presents a real threat to the Serb and is backable at 4/1.
Djokovic has never lost to del Potro and has won all three ties between the two in straight sets.
The Serb is favoured to win 3-0 at 5/6, but del Potro has dropped just two sets in his nine clay court matches this year and we fancy del Potro to test Djokovic.
It’s 15/8 for exactly four sets in the match and Djokovic is 12/5 to win 3-1, but the pick of the market is backing Djokovic at 7/1 to win the first set 7-6.
Stanislas Wawrinka vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
With just three places separating these two in the tennis rankings, this is the most equal match of the third round and so punters can find plenty of value in the French Open odds.
Tsonga has won their only previous encounter back in 2007 and he just edges the favouritism at 8/11.
Wawrinka is a 1/1 shot and will have to compete against a partisan crowd as well as his opponent, and because of this we’re siding with Tsonga to edge it in five sets – the Frenchman is 9/2 to win 3-2.
The Frenchman is 4/1 to lose the first set but win the match and that looks the pick of the value considering he had to do so on his previous win over Wawrinka.
A £10 stake on Djokovic and Tsonga both winning 3-2 would return £385. Sign up here to take advantage of a free bet worth up to £30.
