It was expected to be the wettest day of the first week of the French Open and there were a couple of delays and the ending of play slightly earlier than hoped.
Some of the First Round matches that had been scheduled for Monday have to be completed on Tuesday and that means there is a busy day of action to get through.
We have already seen a number of upsets through the first two days of the tournament, but those have largely been in the Women's tournament, although Iga Swiatek continues to play at a level that looks impossible for anyone to match.
Both Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic followed Carlos Alcaraz as big First Round winners, but more of the top players will get their French Open tournaments under way.
Casper Ruud - 8.5 games v Jo-Wilfred Tsonga: An impressive career is going to come to an end at some point during the French Open, but Jo-Wilfred Tsonga will be hoping to turn back the clock one more time. He is unsurprisingly a massive underdog in this First Round match as he takes on a top ten player in his home Grand Slam, but Jo-Wilfred Tsonga will have the fans firmly behind him and he still has aspects of his big game that could be potentially dangerous for Casper Ruud.
Injuries have forced Jo-Wilfred Tsonga into the decision to call time on his career, but you can never doubt the heart of the Frenchman. He has made the absolute most out of his talent even when the early part of his career was hit by injury and Tsonga is a former Grand Slam Finalist, and reached a career best World Number 5 back in February 2012.
All respect has to be given to Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, who was a personal favourite to watch, and I do hope he has an enjoyable life post-tennis.
Unfortunately I do think the home favourite is going to have a tough time staying with Casper Ruud, one of the better clay courters out there. The Norwegian won the title in Geneva in the lead up to the French Open, but Casper Ruud may be slightly disappointed with his overall performance on the red dirt this season with the numbers dipping back from the high of 2021 to hit 2020 levels.
Those are still decent numbers with Casper Ruud being particularly strong behind serve and I do think that will help him ease into this match. During the clay court season, Ruud has held almost 86% of his service games and this First Round match is against an opponent who has struggled with his return.
One of the main reasons Casper Ruud may not have matched the levels he has shown is that he has not returned as well as he would have liked, although significantly better than Jo-Wilfred Tsonga. The slight dip in the return points won has really impacted the breaks of serve and it is a concern when asking Ruud to cover a number like this one.
However, I do think Jo-Wilfred Tsonga could be worn down in the match and he is only holding 67% of his service games played on the clay courts in the lead up to the French Open. I do think he will be inspired early and the match will be quite competitive in the first set, but Casper Ruud should be able to continue exerting pressure with his own serve and the Frenchman may just be overtaken by emotion the longer this match goes, eventually leading to a relatively comfortable win on the scoreboard for the top ten player in the match.
Stefanos Tsitsipas - 7.5 games v Lorenzo Musetti: Twelve months ago, Lorenzo Musetti held a 2-0 lead over Novak Djokovic in the Fourth Round of the French Open and looked like he might have been on the brink of a major upset. The then 19 year old Italian was not able to hold himself together and the body let him down as he was forced to retire in the fifth set, while the now 20 year old has just had a few issues with finding the consistency needed on the Tour.
It has been far from ideal preparation going into the French Open as Lorenzo Musetti was forced to retire from his match in the Madrid Masters against Alexander Zverev with an apparent leg injury. This was certainly serious enough for Musetti to miss his home Masters event in Rome and there has to be some uncertainty about how he is feeling before a very tough First Round match at the French Open.
The match up with Stefanos Tsitsipas has not been a good one for Lorenzo Musetti who has lost their two meetings in 2021. In those matches, Stefanos Tsitsipas has been able to really exert his dominance on the return of serve and he has broken in 45% of the return games played, while holding onto his own serve in 90% of games played.
One of those wins came on the clay courts and Stefanos Tsitsipas has put together another strong season on the red dirt which includes picking up the title in Monte Carlo before reaching the Semi Final in Madrid and the Final in Rome. Being in the bottom half of the Men's draw in Paris has given Stefanos Tsitsipas a real chance to play in the Final here for the second year in a row having lost in five sets to Novak Djokovic in 2021.
He had a 2-0 lead that day, but Stefanos Tsitsipas continues to play his best tennis on this surface and I think he holds all the cards to win this match and win by a margin that would make a statement to the rest of the draw.
Lorenzo Musetti is a strong return player and he could cause problems, but if his movement is still restricted, I do think Stefanos Tsitsipas can move him around and wear him down. The Greek superstar is a very consistent return player on the clay courts and I think he has enough all around tennis to continue his dominance of his younger opponent as Stefanos Tsitsipas moves through to the Second Round.
Daniil Medvedev - 7.5 games v Facundo Bagnis: He never really hid his dislike of the clay courts, but the run in the French Open in 2021 showed Daniil Medvedev what he can do on this surface. Injury and the decision to have surgery meant Daniil Medvedev missed almost the entirety of the clay court season with the sole tournament he joined in Geneva ended in an opening match defeat to Richard Gasquet.
You can forgive Daniil Medvedev for making a slow start in that match considering the length of time he has been away from the Tour and adding in a new surface, one that he will admit is still not his best. However, the performance in the second set in that defeat will be encouraging and I do think the World Number 2, and soon to be returning to World Number 1, can make a positive start on his return to the French Open.
Playing against a clay court specialist is a challenge, but Facundo Bagnis had a slight injury concern last week in Geneva which forced a withdrawal in the First Round having won a couple of Qualifiers.
The numbers overall for Facundo Bagnis are decent, but you do have to remember that he does not play against top opponents all the time. Over the course of the clay court season, Bagnis does hold a winning record, but he is just 1-3 against top 100 Ranked opponents and his numbers dip considerably behind both serve and on return.
Being a left hander will make things a bit more awkward against most, but Facundo Bagnis would naturally be going into the strength of Daniil Medvedev and I simply think he will struggle to cope if the World Number 2 is even at 80% for this one.
Facundo Bagnis has a vulnerable serve, one that I expect Daniil Medvedev to attack, and I think it is going to lead to a good win for the higher Ranked player. There will be much tougher tests ahead in the French Open draw, but Daniil Medvedev should be in a good place with that match in Geneva under the belt and his successes at the French Open twelve months ago means it is not the same kind of mental challenge to perform here as there may have been previously.
After a competitive set, set and a half, I think Daniil Medvedev will get stronger and he may just see Facundo Bagnis wilt away in this First Round match.
Alex De Minaur - 7.5 games v Hugo Gaston: In the early Rounds of the Grand Slam events, you get plenty of matches with wide spreads like we see in the First Round at Roland Garros.
Some players are more capable of covering than others, but this looks to be a rare moment in which Alex De Minaur can be asked to get the better of such a spread like this one on a clay court. This is the least favourite surface of the Australian with a largely weak serve not getting any help from the surface like he will on the grass and the clay courts.
Movement is perhaps something that Alex De Minaur is still working out on the surface too, and put those factors together and you can perhaps understand why he has only held 72% of the service games played on the clay in 2022. Those numbers do take a significant step up when only considering matches against opponents outside the top twenty of the World Rankings and that is the level of opponent that Alex De Minaur will be facing in the First Round here.
Of course you do have to also factor in that De Minaur is going to have to deal with the home crowd that will get behind Hugo Gaston, but the Frenchman has had a difficult clay court season after suffering a hand injury in Munich. He had to withdraw from a match on that day, but Hugo Gaston has lost three clay court matches in a row since then and has been struggling to even compete in those defeats.
It has to be a worry ahead of the First Round match against Alex De Minaur, especially with the serve one that can be attacked by someone who is happy to compete all day long like the Australian.
Hugo Gaston has really had a hard time getting into the return games on the red dirt this season, but I expect him to have more joy in this one with Alex De Minaur happy to use his serve as a rally starter in large part.
An edge with Alex De Minaur is the efficiency in winning points behind his first serve and I think that will the main reason he is able to work his way past the home player. Hugo Gaston has to be inspired being back in Paris where he reached the Fourth Round in 2020, but he has not won a match in the main draw at this tournament when the tournament has been played in its usual spot in the calendar in May and I think De Minaur is going to find enough breaks of serve to eventually earn the cover of this mark.
MY PICKS: Casper Ruud - 8.5 Games @ 1.75 Bet Victor (2 Units)
Stefanos Tsitsipas - 7.5 Games @ 1.72 Bet Fred (2 Units)
Daniil Medvedev - 7.5 Games @ 2.00 Paddy Power (2 Units)
Alex De Minaur - 7.5 Games @ 2.00 Paddy Power (2 Units)
Frances Tiafoe - 1.5 Sets @ 2.10 Paddy Power (2 Units)
Andrey Rublev - 7.5 Games @ 1.72 Bet365 (2 Units)
Federico Delbonis - 4.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet365 (2 Units)
David Goffin - 4.5 Games @ 1.91 Bet Fred (2 Units)
French Open Update: 10-10, - 2.44 Units (40 Units Staked, - 6.10% Yield)
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