MISC

French Open Third Round Betting Guide: Saturday 6/3/23

Coco Gauff gets a tricky matchup against a new face on the scene who's quickly rising up the ranks. Can she hold off the young upstart?

We've reached the premier event of the clay court season, with the 2023 edition of the French Open already underway. The third round continues on Saturday, and what better way to get in on the action than by making some wagers on the tennis odds at FanDuel Sportsbook?

Where can we find the most betting value?

Coco Gauff (-128) over Mirra Andreeva

Coco Gauff had an iffy clay court season prior to the French Open, but this price could be a gift for the No. 6 player in the world against a qualifier -- albeit one who has a ton of hype behind her.

At the beginning of the clay court season in early April, 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva was ranked 312th, and she's since gone on a torrid run to move all the way up to 143rd. During this time, she destroyed lower-level competition to win back-to-back ITF tournaments and then followed that up with a round of 16 appearance in Madrid while also winning a match in Paris. She's yet to drop a set at the French Open, including her three matches in qualifying.

It's hard to not be impressed by all that, but she did lose in straight sets in her only match against a top-10 opponent over this span (Aryna Sabalenka) and also took a straight-sets loss to 90th-ranked Kamilla Rakhimova. None of her victories at Roland Garros have come against players anywhere close to the caliber she'll see in Gauff, either, as none were ranked inside the top 70.

Of course, Coco is no stranger to being a young phenom, and she's still just 19 years old herself.

Despite her going 3-3 in her lead-up tournaments on clay, let's not forget that we're talking about the 2022 runner-up at this event, and she made the quarterfinals the year prior. Per Tennis Abstract, she has a 71.7% career win percentage on clay, making it one of her best surfaces.

Since dropping her first set at this event, Gauff has gone on to win four straight at scores of 6-1, 6-2, 6-2, and 6-3, so she may also be finding her form in the nick of time, too.

Tennis Abstract projects Coco to win 65.8% of the time while these odds imply a 56.1% chance of victory. Facing these young up-and-comers can be tricky, but Gauff was there not too long ago, and this will be one of Andreeva's toughest tests of her young career.