By Antony Jordan
The Men’s French Open tournament has worked out exactly as it should as Sunday’s final of the clay of Roland Garros in the French capital, Paris, sees a meeting of the top two seeds and the two highest ranking players on the tour. The French Open Final will see Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray do battle for a 34th time and it is the Scottish world number two that is desperately trying to make up the ground as he has won just ten of the previous meetings.
Can he close the gap in front of the passionate French crowd by securing his second clay court win over the Serbian in a row after claiming the Rome Masters title in the middle of May? We preview this decider at Roland Garros with online sportsbook 10Bet.com to provide you with our best French Open Final Picks.
French Open Final Odds:
The player sitting number one in the ATP rankings comes into this final looking to put the disappointment of defeats at this stage of the 2012, 2014 and 2015 French Opens where he was beaten by Rafael Nadal in the first two and Stanislas Wawrinka last time around. The Serbian has 11 Grand Slam titles to his name but has never won in the French capital and after two straight forward matches in the Quarter and Semi Finals this year he will feel that he will finally complete the set of Grand Slam titles. Prior to the straight sets wins over Tomas Berdych and Dominic Thiem in the last eight and four rounds respectively Djokovic dropped his only set in a match against Roberto Bautista Agut that could have gone a very different way if not for the substantial rain delays.
The Spanish 14th seed breezed to the first set 6-3 before the weather made playing impossible and it was not until the following day the two players were able to restart the action, but the break revitalised the top seed and, despite still far from his best, he closed out the match 6-4, 6-1, 7-5. He found higher gears in the following two matches, but can he keep these performances going against someone he knows very well and claim his first French Open title at the fourth attempt?
After three failed attempts at reaching the French Open Final, including where the Scottish world number two reached the semi-finals over the last two years losing to Rafael Nadal and Djokovic, 2016 has seen Andy Murray finally get the chance to compete for this clay court Grand Slam title and add to his 2012 US Open and 2013 Wimbledon titles. The Scot has reached this milestone in the most difficult of manners too as he dropped two sets to Radek Stepanek and Mathias Bourgue, coming from 2-0 and 2-1 down to progress in five sets respectively, in the first two rounds.
Rounds three and four saw straight set victories over 27th and 15th seeds Ivo Karlovic and John Isner, although neither match was a simple for the world number two as the result suggested, before dropping a set against ninth seed Richard Gasquet in the Quarter Finals and defending champion Stanislas Wawrinka in two very difficult matches against players that always perform well on clay. Murray has certainly had a tougher time of things at Roland Garros than his opponent, but will this see him stronger for the final?
10Bet.com certainly do not believe so as their match odds suggest a straight forward victory for the man sitting top of the ATP Tour pile right now and the Serb has won three of the four meetings between himself and Murray on clay since 2008. However, with last year’s French Open semi-final going to five sets and then Murray winning in Rome last month could an upset be on the cards?
Djokovic holds the advantage in Grand Slam finals too with four wins in six meetings, but all of these four have come at the start of the year as he has won the Australian Open four times against Murray, including earlier this season. Murray’s two wins came on the hard court of the US Open at Flushing Meadows and the grass of Wimbledon in front of his home fans, so he is more than capable of beating the Serbian on different surfaces when the pressure is on. This, coupled with his improving performances against Djokovic on clay sees us believe that this will be a very close match that could see either of the top two in the world claim this first ever French Open title.
As we are not confident of which of these two players will triumph on Court Philippe-Chatrier our best French Open Final pick comes from an alternative market – the Total Player Games market – and as we see this match going long with Murray pushing the world number one all the way we are backing the overs as our pick.
French Open Pick
Our top French Open Final pick is back Andy Murray to win Over 18.5 games against Novak Djokovic @ 2.00 in the 10Bet Sportsbook!