French Open Day 3: Can Murray battle through as Nadal and Djokovic begin?
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Should we get a full day’s play (fingers crossed) in Paris today, we could be in for a thrilling morning, afternoon and evening of action, with Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams all scheduled to feature.
Last night turned into quite the ordeal for Murray, who found himself two sets down to veteran Radek Stepanek in their first round clash, but a late rally from the Scot has left day three’s action brilliantly poised.
Murray had never lost a set to the Czech in any of their previous meetings, but the two-time Slam champion will head onto Philippe-Chatrier Court this afternoon with the scores at 3-6 3-6 6-0 4-2.
Stepanek was thoroughly beaten from the third set onwards, but will he turn that around overnight?
A certain Rafael Nadal gets his campaign for a 10th French Open title underway today, and will be hoping for a much easier time of it versus Australia’s Sam Groth.
Nadal is seemingly a sure thing at 1/100 for victory on Suzanne-Lenglen Court, where if light, time and rain allows, David Ferrer will close out proceedings tonight.
The Spaniard meets Russian Evgeny Donskoy, and is 1/20 to sail through into Round Two.
Djokovic is scheduled to follow Murray on Philippe-Chatrier, with the Serbian bidding to land a French Open crown which remains the only major title absent from his extensive trophy cabinet, as the world number one takes on Taipei’s Yen-Hsun Lu.
Barring the biggest of sporting shocks, Djoko should be untroubled at 1/100, with an upset deemed 25/1.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will follow what should be a swift Djokovic victory, with the Frenchman against Jan-Lennard Struff, before the main court bows out (as scheduled at least…) with Serena Williams.
The American hasn’t endured a classic season thus far, but the 34-year-old came through pretty emphatically in Rome, and opens her campaign for a fourth title at Roland Garros against world number 168 Magdalena Rybarikova.
As with Nadal and Djokovic, Serena is expected to be largely untroubled this afternoon, at odds of 1/50 to reach the second round.
Aside from all those big names, others to look out for today include Victoria Azarenka, Venus Williams, Ana Ivanovic, Tomas Berdych plus Britain’s Laura Robson.
Following Heather Watson’s victory yesterday, Robson could join her in round two if she can cause an upset and defeat Andrea Petkovic at 11/2.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
