HomeGalera BlogTennis NewsLearn How to Bet on the French Open

Learn How to Bet on the French Open

What is the French Open?

The French Open is one of the four major Grand Slam events in tennis, including Wimbledon, the Australian Open and the US Open. It was originally played on grass but the court was switched to a clay court in 1975. It has since been played on the clay court, and has a reputation for being the most physically difficult Grand Slam to play because of the slower pace and the higher bounce. The tournament and the venue it is played in is named after the French pioneer aviator, Roland Garros.

The tournament is held in Paris, France and begins in late May, with three qualifying rounds that precede the single's events. There are five major events, namely the men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. After the qualification rounds are completed, the winners will enter the men's and women's singles tournament in the round of 128. There are three more rounds, the rounds of 64, 32 and 16, before the quarter finals are played. Following the quarter finals, there are the semi-finals and finals, where the winner is crowned. The Grand Slam tournament has a prize pool of over €30 million, of which the winners of the two singles take home €1.4 million each.

The French Open is one of the most exciting competitions because of its clay surface. The clay causes a big disadvantage for tennis players who make big serves or like to hit the ball with great strength. The balls bounce higher and are considerably slower after they hit the clay court, which favours players who play slower but with more technique. One famous example of a tennis great who struggled in the French Open is Pete Sampras. Sampras won 14 Grand Slam titles, though he never won a French Open, in fact his best performance was in 1996 when he reached the semi-finals. Other players who never won the French Open are John McEnroe, Venus Williams, Boris Becker and Martina Hingis.

Players who have had success on the Roland Garros clay court include Rafael Nadal, Bjorn Borg and Justine Henin who play far more technically.

How to Bet on the French Open

When it comes to betting on the French Open, there are many bets that can make the tournament even more thrilling to watch. It is a tricky tournament to predict because of the advantage that slower paced tennis players can have, though there are a number of bets to choose from giving punters the chance to find the right bet.

To Win

Bets can be placed directly on which player or team will win the match. All tennis matches have ‘To Win’ bets, and the odds for the matches will be available days before each match, giving time for bettors to do their research.

Bet on sets

If the odds offered in the ‘To Win’ bet are not high enough, bettors can try to bet on how many sets the players or teams will win. These are not two way bets, as there are a number of betting options that cover each of the possible outcomes. In the French Open that is played with best of 5, there are betting options such as 3-0, 3-1, 3-2, 2-3, 1-3 and 0-3.

Overall Games Winner Handicaps

This bet assigns a handicap to the favourite player that they must overcome for the bet to win. As a result, it offers better odds than the ‘To Win’ bets.

An example market might be Roger Federer -2.5 and Andy Murray +2.5. This means that Player A is the favourite to win the match. If you then bet on Federer, you will only win the bet if he wins the match by at least 3 games. If Murray wins or loses by no more than 2 games, then you would lose the bet.

Handicap Games is just one example of handicap betting. The same principle can also be applied to the number of sets.

Winner of Each Set

It is possible to bet on the winner of each of the sets. Many tennis fans will place bets on the first, second or third set, especially if they are watching the match and have a lot of knowledge of the players or teams.

Over/Under bets

There are many different types of over/under bets each of which relates to certain statistics during the match. There are bets such as the overall number of games that will be played in a match, number of games won by a player or team, winner and number of games played in the match and more. These two way bets are presented with a value and you simply bet over or under. For example, you could bet on their being over or under 22.5 games in a match.

Many betting specials

There are many more bets that relate to specific statistics. Bets such as a player to lose the first set but win the match, whether sets will have an odd or even number of games, whether a player or team will win one set or not and so on. These bets, and more, are all available online and it is worth taking the time to see exactly what is available so that you can build a comprehensive betting strategy.