After two weeks of world class tennis at Roland-Garros we now have the finalists in the women’s draw ready to fight it out in the final. We preview the women’s final below and will add the men’s final preview when we know who will be taking on 11-time champion Rafael Nadal. As always, we provide our best bet for the huge match!
French Open Final Betting Tips
Women’s Final
We’ll try our best to put our Aussie bias aside when providing our best bet for the women’s final, but the way Australia’s Ash Barty has been playing this fortnight, it’s very hard not to get carried away. The world number eight will be coming up against Czech Republic’s Marketa Vondrousova.
Ash Barty
What a ride it’s been for Ash Barty to get to the French Open Final. She’s had a terrific 2019 season to date, which has been building up to this point where she can become Australia’s first Grand Slam Champion since Sam Stosur won the US Open in 2011.
While Barty has been playing some top class tennis, it must be said that she has had a fair amount of luck with how her draw has opened up. Barty will have adopted an American accent throughout the two week tournament, after facing players from the USA in five of her six matches so far.
Barty was set to face defending champion Simona Halep in the semi-finals, but was lucky enough to avoid her thanks to 17-year-old American Amanda Anisimova knocked her out in straight sets in the quarterfinals. In saying that, Anisimova played some great tennis and pushed Barty to three sets in the semi’s, which will have Ash nice and sharp for the final.
Road to the final:
defeated J. Pegula 6-3 6-3
defeated D. Collins 7-5 6-1
defeated A. Petkovic 6-3 6-1
defeated S. Kenin 6-3 3-6 6-0
defeated M. Keys 6-3 7-5
defeated A. Anisimova 6-7 6-3 6-3
Marketa Vondrousova
Barty’s opponent, 19-year-old Vondrousova, has also enjoyed a career best season on the WTA Tour. She’s soared up the rankings to where she is now the world number 38 and will obviously get a huge boost to her ranking at the completion of the French Open.
Much like Barty, Vondrousova’s draw opened up quite a bit thanks to some of the top seeds bowing out early in the tournament. However, she too has played some top quality players en route to the final, with her best win coming against the in form Johanna Konta in the semi-finals. She was the underdog in that match and will once again be the underdog in her match with Barty, but a lot of the time on the women’s tour that can actually work in your advantage.
Road to the final:
defeated Y.F. Wang 6-4 6-3
defeated A. Potapova 6-4 6-0
defeated C Saurez Navarro 6-4 6-4
defeated A. Sevastova 6-2 6-2
defeated P. Martic 7-6 7-5
defeated J. Konta 7-5 7-6
Prediction
We mentioned above that we’ll be putting our Aussie bias aside to provide our best bet for the final. However, Barty is the far more experienced player of the two women and has looked in tremendous touch not only this fortnight, but in the whole 2019 season. She’s won the most matches on the WTA Tour of any women this year and has the nerve to produce a big performance on the biggest of stages. All things considered, we see her as the likely winner and are more than happy to back her in at a generous price.
Men’s Final
The Women’s final was terrific for the growth of tennis in Australia, with our very own Ash Barty claiming the first Grand Slam from an Aussie since Sam Stosur in 2011. With the women’s draw now complete, we now turn our attention to the men’s final, which is a rematch of the 2018 edition of the French Open.
Rafael Nadal
It’s been yet another sensational French Open campaign for Spaniard, Rafael Nadal. He’s blitzed all opponents en route to the final, dropping just one set from his six matches (vs Goffin in R3). His most impressive match was in the semi-finals against Roger Federer, where he dominated the Swiss from start to finish, defeating him in three comfortable sets.
Nadal has a chance to improve on his unreal record at the French Open by winning his twelfth title here. Further, a victory on Sunday night would take his overall Grand Slam tally to 18, which would have him just two behind Roger Federer (20) on the all-time list. The Spaniard was our tip to win the title at the start of the tournament when he was $2.20. He’s now into $1.20
Road to the final:
defeated Y. Hanfmann 6-2 6-1 6-3
defeated Y. Maden 6-1 6-2 6-4
defeated D. Goffin 6-1 6-3 4-6 6-3
defeated J. Londero 6-2 6-3 6-3
defeated K. Nishikori 6-1 6-1 6-3
defeated R. Federer 6-3 6-4 6-2
Dominic Thiem
Nadal’s opponent, Dominic Thiem, is quickly becoming a fan favourite at Roland-Garros. He’s made the semi-final here in four straight years (2016-19) and the final for two straight years now. Last year he was runner-up to Nadal and will be desperate to go one better this time around.
Thiem took a while to find his best form at the French Open this year. He dropped a set in each of his first three matches, all to low ranked players, before finding his best form against Gael Monfils in the fourth round. Thiem then went on to dominate Khachanov in the quarterfinals before producing an amazing effort in the semi-finals to defeat world number one Novak Djokovic in a five-set thriller.
Road to the final:
defeated T. Paul 6-4 4-6 7-6 6-2
defeated A. Bublik 6-3 6-7 6-3 7-5
defeated P. Cuevas 6-3 4-6 6-2 7-5
defeated G. Monfils 6-4 6-4 6-2
defeated K. Khachanov 6-2 6-4 6-2
defeated N. Djokovic 6-2 3-6 7-5 5-7 7-5
Prediction
As mentioned above, this is a rematch of last year’s French Open final. Nadal dominated that one in straight sets and will start as the overwhelming favourite once again. The Spaniard holds an 8-4 head-to-head advantage over the Austrian and are 7-3 advantage on clay. However, Nadal is 3-0 against Thiem at the French Open and is yet to drop a set to the young gun.
We believe that if Nadal wins the first set here, he’ll run away with it in straight sets and cover the game handicap in the process. Thiem has won the first set in all six of his matches thus far but has lost the second set on 4/6 occasions. If the Spaniard can win set number one, which we believe is likely, then we see him covering -6.5 games.
Rafael Nadal -6.5 Handicap
$1.99
