It has been a tough couple of days for the Tennis Picks, but the second week is underway at the French Open and the selections from Day 8 can be read below.
Alexander Zverev - 7.5 games v Jesper de Jong: Most of the ambitions that Alexander Zverev would have had when entering professional tennis have been met, but the big miss on his resume is a Grand Slam title. He has reached Finals before and Alexander Zverev should have beaten Dominic Thiem in the US Open Final, but the World Number 3 has come up short and the elusive Major has remained out of his grasp.
Before the French Open began, Alexander Zverev was one of the top three favourites to win the tournament in the absence of Carlos Alcaraz.
The draw placed him in the tougher half of the bracket, but Alexander Zverev remained the favourite to find his way into the Final and the first week of this French Open tournament could not have gone much better for him. As mentioned, Alcaraz already announced he was missing this Grand Slam and later included Wimbledon as he looks to recover from a wrist injury, but the Grand Slam door looks wide open for Alexander Zverev to walk through after both Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic were beaten before the Fourth Round.
Alexander Zverev must focus and not think too far ahead, but this Fourth Round match should be one that he is very comfortable with.
The highest Ranked player that Alexander Zverev has beaten in Paris is Tomas Machac, the World Number 43, and the favourite for the title now faces the World Number 106 in the Fourth Round.
The live Ranking has Jesper de Jong moving into the top 80 and he is playing with 'house money' having entered the main draw of the French Open as a Lucky Loser when Arthur Fils had to withdraw. That meant facing former French Open Champion Stan Wawrinka in the First Round, but Jesper de Jong took advantage of his fortune to still be playing in Paris and won that match in four sets, while also upsetting Karen Khachanov in five sets in the Third Round.
Wins like that will give Jesper de Jong a lot of confidence to take into the Fourth Round match, but he will also know that Alexander Zverev represents another raise in level of opponent.
Before the run here, Jesper de Jong had been just 9-8 on the clay courts in the build up to the French Open, while he had a 1-4 record against top 100 Ranked opponents ahead of the upset of Khachanov in the last Round.
His numbers in the previous five matches against top 100 Ranked opponents have seen Jesper de Jong hold 71% of service games played and break in 18%- he outperformed those in the Third Round win, but spending almost four and a half hours on the court is not ideal.
Alexander Zverev dropped a set at the French Open for the first time in the Third Round, but he has been cruising through the draw and this is a player who is 14-0 on the clay courts against players Ranked outside the top 20. He has held 87% of service games and broken in 32% of return games against that competition and so Zverev should be pretty confident he can make progress.
It will certainly help that the highest Ranked player left in the Men's tournament has played Jesper de Jong twice before on the clay courts, once in Hamburg in 2024 and here at the French Open in the Second Round twelve months ago. In that match, Alexander Zverev dropped the first set before cruising past the Dutchman, while holding 91% of service games played across those two matches compared with Jesper de Jong's 56% mark.
Pressure will be building on Alexander Zverev who may feel this is his time to finally win a Grand Slam title, but he should be comfortable in this match up and can cover this spread.
Iga Swiatek - 3.5 games v Marta Kostyuk: At the time of writing, the majority of the top WTA players have made it through to the draw with the exception being Elena Rybakina and this Fourth Round match at the beginning of the second week could give the winner a huge boost in confidence.
In fact, some may even believe that the winner of this Fourth Round contest is the favourite to come out of the bottom half of the French Open draw to reach the Final next Saturday.
Marta Kostyuk is the lower Seed and the underdog, but the World Number 15 has reached this career high mark earlier this month after winning eleven straight clay court matches, which meant picking up a couple of titles, including the big WTA 1000 event in Madrid. A decision was made to skip Rome, which began days after Madrid, but that has not curtailed the growing confidence and Marta Kostyuk has won three more matches here to reach the Fourth Round of the French Open for just the second time, and just the fourth time she has managed to do that at Grand Slam level.
The best run remains reaching the Quarter Final at the Australian Open in 2024, but Marta Kostyuk's run to the US Open Fourth Round last year was the first time she had reached the second week of a Slam since that run in Melbourne.
It should be noted that in fourteen clay court wins in 2026, Marta Kostyuk has dropped a ser just four times, while the four wins over top 50 Ranked opponents have come in very impressive manner.
Martak Kostyuk has not had to beat anyone Ranked higher than World Number 82 in her three wins at the French Open, but this time she takes on Iga Swiatek who is a four time former Champion here and someone who has not been beaten before the Quarter Final in any of the last six French Open runs.
The World Number 3 has won all three matches in Paris without dropping a set, but Iga Swiatek's build up for the French Open was far from convincing- a Quarter Final defeat in Stuttgart and a Semi Final defeat in Rome was about as good as it got, but that is a surprise for Swiatek fans when you think of her history on the red dirt.
Much like her opponent, Iga Swiatek has still produced some eye-catching numbers on the clay this season and she has a winning record against top 50 Ranked opponents, although not nearly as impressive as the perfect record held by Marta Kostyuk.
However, it is Iga Swiatek who may hold he mental edge having beaten Marta Kostyuk in all three previous matches on the Tour, even if the last of those was in 2024. It has been the Iga Swiatek serve that has proven to be the difference, although in 2026 Marta Kostyuk will feel she has grown with experience to offer a much tougher test than the routine defeats suffered before.
The closest of the three defeats came back in 2021 at the French Open when Iga Swiatek eventually prevailed 6-3, 6-4, but it was the match where Marta Kostyuk was able to have her most consistent success on the return of serve.
Five years on, the Ukrainian will feel she can do even better with a fourteen match winning run on the clay behind her, but the expectation is that Iga Swiatek will still have a little too much knowhow on this surface and can narrowly cover this spread after a battle.
MY PICKS: Alexander Zverev - 7.5 Games @ 1.72 William Hill (2 Units)
Iga Swiatek - 3.5 Games @ 1.72 Bet365 (2 Units)
Elina Svitolina - 2.5 Games @ 1.80 Bet365 (2 Units)
Mirra Andreeva - 5.5 Games @ 1.61 Bet365 (2 Units)
French Open Update: 17-14, + 0.48 Units (58 Units Staked, + 1% Yield)
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