Tennis best bets for the French Open – Sunday, June 4th
The French Open is the second major of the tennis season, and it’s the only one that is played on clay. This year’s tournament will feel a bit different without 14-time champion Rafael Nadal, but the action should be tremendous from both the men and the women. There’s nothing quite like clay-court tennis, and we’ll be here with daily best bets for all the action at Roland Garros. With that said, keep reading for our picks for Sunday, June 4th. Make sure you also check out the Pro Picks page throughout the course of the tournament, as I’ll have some plays there that you won’t find here.
MORE: Check out our Pro Picks page for everything our experts have
Anastasia Pavlyunchekova vs. Elise Mertens (Scheduled: 5:00 a.m. ET)
Pavlyuchenkova has been ranked as high as 11th in the world, but she is currently just 333rd. The Russian dealt with a brutal knee injury last year, and that really cost her in the rankings. But she has looked tremendous in Paris thus far. Pavlyuchenkova has already earned wins over Linda Fruhvirtova, Liudmila Samsonova and Anastasia Potapova. Now, I love her chances of beating Mertens on Sunday.
I just don’t think Mertens is going to be able to deal with Pavlyuchenkova’s combination of power and aggressiveness. While clay normally favors players that can really move on the baseline, you need to have a lot of strength to win when the courts are as slow as they have been in Paris. It takes an absurd amount of power to hit through the conditions right now, and I think only one of these two players has that.
Pavlyuchenkova should also be able to feast on Mertens’ serve in this one. She can be really shaky with that first serve, and Pavlyuchenkova will rip any looks she gets at the second.
Bet: Pavlyuchenkova ML (-110)
Elina Svitolina vs. Daria Kasatkina (Scheduled: 8:30 a.m. ET)
Svitolina returned to action from a one-year maternity leave in April. Things were slow to start for the Ukrainian, but she has really found her form lately. Svitolina is on an eight-match winning streak, and she even won a title in Strasbourg before this tournament. So, while Svitolina might not be playing quite as well as she was when she was the world No. 3, she’s playing at a high level now.
Svitolina now faces a very tough opponent in Kasatkina, but the Ukrainian is actually 6-0 against the Russian in her career. And Kasatkina also happens to be coming into this match with serious question marks surrounding her serve. She has had a lot of trouble holding since the start of the 2023 season, which isn’t a good thing against a player that returns as well as Svitolina.
If there was ever a time for Kasatkina to get in the win column against Svitolina, this would be it. But I have a hard time passing on plus-money odds in a matchup that has been so one sided in the past.
Bet: Svitolina ML (+150)