We've got three outright picks for the French Open 2021 including a 6/1 shot.
Men's Australian Open 2021 Predictions
Rafael Nadal goes into this year's tournament as the odds-on favourite at 5/6 and will bid to make it an incredible 14 Roland Garros titles in 2021. The spaniard has been the best player on tour during the clay court season once again, winning titles in Barcelona and Rome.
Not far behind him is Stefanos Tsitsipas, who having won Monte Carlo, was one racquet swing away from beating Nadal in Barcelona.
Djokovic meanwhile, came up against Nadal in the Rome final and, as is usually the case when the pair face each other on clay, the Serb came out on second-best..
Roland Garros 2021 Draw
The draw, made yesterday at 17:00 BST, has ensured there will be plenty of excitement on both halves with Nadal, Djokovic and Federer in one side and Tsitsipas, Zverev and Thiem in the other.
Looking at the bottom half there's a couple plays that interest me. The first one is Tsitsipas to win 4th Quarter at evens.
He has had a very good draw by landing in Medvedev's quarter, who is the second seed despite never winning a match in the main draw at this tournament. The Russian does hold a 6-1 H2H record over Tsitsipas and even beat him in Monte Carlo in 2019.
The Greek has massively upped his clay game since then though, particularly on return and on current form there's little chance of Medvedev coming out on top if they were to meet in the quarters.
The other main threats are Carreno Busta and Garin, who have both had decent clay court seasons. I can't see either of those two taking more than a set off Tsitsipas though.
The second one is Casper Ruud to win 3rd quarter at 6/1. The Norwegian is a proper clay court specialist and will be planning his schedule around the clay court season for many years to come. This year has been an exceptional one for him, winning the title in Geneva as well as reaching the semi finals in both Monte Carlo and Madrid.
He is the same quarter as Thiem and Zverev, which on paper looks to a tough draw. Thiem has been completely out of sorts since his US Open win though with rumours of a nagging injury. His return to his favourite surface has not yielded better results, losing to Norrie and Sonego in his last two tournaments.
Zverev has faired considerably better and won a title in Mardrid last month. His first serve will not be nearly as effective in Paris as it was in the altitude of the Spanish capital though, where the courts play almost like a hard court.
He still has not advanced further than the quarter final stage at Roland Garros and I think there's value in taking Ruud over both Zverev and Thiem.
While I do think Nadal will win this tournament I'm not going to tip him at odds-on and would prefer to take the 3/1 price on him and Tsitsipas meeting in the final.
As mentioned above, Tsitsipas is in the bottom half of the draw and I believe is the strongest player in that half on current form. Nadal should do his bit on the other side of the draw and I expect him to come through Djokovic at the semi final stage.
