Andy Schooler made a profit with 10 of his 14 round-by-round previews across the recent Madrid and Rome Masters events. Now he’s turned his attention to day one of the French Open.
French Open betting tips: Daily best bets
1pt Pierre-Hugues Herbert to beat Lorenzo Sonego at 2/1 (General)
0.5pt Nuno Borges to beat Tomas Martin Etcheverry at 9/5 (BetMGM)
Lorenzo Sonego v Pierre-Hugues Herbert
This contest looks to have underdog potential.
Veteran Herbert has just come through qualifying without losing his serve (admittedly he did get a walkover in one of the three rounds) and should be full of confidence coming into this clash.
I very much doubt that will be the case for Sonego, whose claycourt season can fairly be described as wretched.
It has featured just one victory with his last five matches all lost, four of them in straight sets. If anything, things have been getting worse, too, with the Italian’s most-recent outing in Geneva seeing him win only four games against Lithuanian qualifier Edas Butvilas, the world number 253.
OK, Herbert isn’t necessarily a player you associate with claycourt success but the doubles expert, who loves to come forward, will welcome the high temperatures expected on Sunday – it’s due to hit 33C which should speed up conditions somewhat.
Admittedly, Herbert hasn’t beaten anyone ranked as high as Sonego this season in singles but this looks a great opportunity and I’m not at all convinced the Frenchman should be 2/1 to win this.
Let’s hope the crowd roars him on to victory on Court 14, which usually provides a great atmosphere.
Tomas Martin Etcheverry v Nuno Borges
I’m tempted by another underdog in this one and that’s Borges.
He’s won the pair’s two previous meetings, both of which have come this season.
Of greatest significance is their clash in Barcelona only last month which the Portuguese won 6-3 7-6 en route to the quarter-finals.
He’s also taken a set off Andrey Rublev during the clay swing, while a narrow loss last time out to rising star Rafael Jodar (after thrashing Jesper de Jong) is far from a disgrace.
You can argue Etcheverry has pushed on a bit since then.
Last week I backed him outright in Hamburg where he played well but managed to miss seven match points against Tommy Paul, who duly went on to reach the final.
You do wonder if such an agonising loss will have left some kind of mark – I don’t remember that happening to one of my tips before, so I very much doubt Etcheverry has ever had to deal with it.
Borges is no mug on the clay and while I’m not totally convinced about him, I do feel he’s overpriced here.
However, I’m wary of potentially racking up early losses at the Slams – history shows they can prove hard to recover from – and so I’ll just keep stakes small on this one.
Posted at 18:10 BST on 23/05/26
More French Open content
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling.
Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.
