The Olympic Games might be played over two weeks, but for the tennis players in Paris, the tournament is fast coming to a close.
We are already into the Quarter Final matches in the women's event and the men's Quarter Final matches will be set on Wednesday evening with the Gold Medals handed out this weekend. Many of the players on the Tour have already begun their hard court preparation with the US Open now less than a month away and there are two Masters events to get through before that too.
With that in mind, the Olympic Games tournament has to be fitted into the calendar every four years.
The players still playing for Medals will only be focused on what they can achieve over the next few days and both tournaments are heating up.
Plenty of attention is also being paid to the Doubles here with teams being paired that would not normally be seen for fans over the course of the season.
And winning a Doubles Gold Medal is still a huge achievement and one that players will remember for the rest of their lives so there is plenty to achieve in the coming days for all still in Paris.
Francisco Cerundolo + 3.5 games v Casper Ruud: Having a day of rest between the Second Round and Third Rounds at the Olympic Games is going to be a big deal for Francisco Cerundolo.
He won the title in Umag on Saturday and was already in action in Paris on Sunday with consecutive wins over Tomas Barrios Vera and Ugo Humbert. Beating one of the home hopes for a Medal will not have endeared Cerundolo to the Roland Garros crowd, especially as Argentina have been criticised for celebrations about French players at the end of the Copa America.
Fans can really get on top of players on these grounds, but Francisco Cerundolo has to believe he has gotten through the worst he will hear when beating a home hope in the previous Round.
Beating Casper Ruud on a clay court is a tougher challenge than seeing off Ugo Humbert and that is the bigger problem for Cerundolo in the Third Round. Over the last few years, only Rafael Nadal, Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic have been able to beat Casper Ruud, although the Norwegian has not been at his absolute best over the last month.
He was disappointingly beaten by Thiago Monteiro in his opening match in Bastad, where Ruud was also playing Doubles alongside Rafael Nadal, while the wins over Taro Daniel and Andrea Vavassori at the Olympics have perhaps been tougher than expected.
Casper Ruud is a strong clay court player and his overall numbers have been much stronger than Francisco Cerundolo's.
The serve is a critical weapon that should give Ruud the edge, but the match up with Francisco Cerundolo has been one that has given the World Number 9 problems.
This is the sixth meeting on the Tour and it is Francisco Cerundolo who leads 3-2, while he has also won two of the three matches played on the clay courts. In their most recent on the clay in Rome in 2023, Casper Ruud was the much stronger player, but even then Francisco Cerundolo was able to drag him into a competitive match and this Third Round contest in Paris may end up being the same.
In terms of the pure numbers, there really has not been much between the players and it certainly makes the games being given to the underdog appealing from a handicap point of view.
Sebastian Baez + 4.5 games v Stefanos Tsitsipas: A comfortable Second Round win over Daniel Evans helped produce a win earlier this week, but this time the decision is to oppose Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The Third Round match against Sebastian Baez is expected to be much tougher than beating the British player in the previous Round, especially with the confidence Baez will bring into any clay court match.
It has been a summer where Baez has reached the Semi Final in Hamburg and the Quarter Final in Kitzbuhel, and he has beaten Thiago Monteiro before a tougher victory over Benjamin Hassan. The wins will have grown the confidence of the World Number 18, although Sebastian Baez is going to have to serve very well to stay competitive in this match.
Stefanos Tsitsipas came through a difficult First Round match before the comfortable victory over Daniel Evans, but it has not been the year expected despite some successes. He will be the first to admit that more needs to be done if he is going to challenge the elite on the ATP Tour, although Tsitsipas has also been dealing with a couple of injuries that have just restricted his capabilities.
Playing on the clay gives him every chance of winning a Medal this week, although the potential Quarter Final against Novak Djokovic looks an extreme test.
Overlooking Sebastian Baez and thinking ahead to any potential meeting with Djokovic would be a mistake though and the Argentinian player is capable of pushing Stefanos Tsitsipas even in a losing effort.
The two previous matches between these players on the Tour have both been very competitive, although Stefanos Tsitsipas has been able to come through on the hard courts in Melbourne and the clay courts in Madrid. The last of those matches was played over twelve months ago, but Tsitsipas will be relatively confident in the match up and that may see him come through one or two critical moments during this match.
Those are the moments that could prove telling in the direction this match eventually is played out, but Sebastian Baez can stay within this bigger than expected line set for the Third Round contest.
MY PICKS: Francisco Cerundolo + 3.5 Games @ 1.80 Bet365 (2 Units)
Sebastian Baez + 4.5 Games @ 2.10 Bet Victor (2 Units)
Donna Vekic - 1.5 Games @ 1.83 Bet Victor (2 Units)
Olympic Games Update: 6-4, + 1.90 Units (20 Units Staked, + 8.64% Yield)
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