The French Open is one of the highlights of the annual tennis calendar. This Grand Slam tournament on the clay courts of Roland Garros in Paris always illuminates the City of Light.
One tennis player more than any other has become synonymous with the French Open. Rafael Nadal is virtually unbeatable on this surface. His phenomenal Roland Garros record speaks for itself.
Nadal has won all but three of the last 15 French Open men's singles titles, so oddsmakers naturally make the king of clay himself a hot favorite for the men's singles. The 12-time champ is odds-on at 10/11 in the outright tennis betting on the tournament once again this year.
Austria's Dominic Thiem - a beaten finalist in each of the last two years at Roland Garros - joins previous winner Novak Djokovic as 3/1 joint-second favorites. The Serbian, who has won five of the last seven Grand Slam crowns on offer, has had just one previous French Open success in 2016, and that came when Nadal withdrew through injury.
Bar those three, it is double-figure prices for any other men's singles competitor to reign in Paris. All-time men's singles Grand Slam record-holder Roger Federer has often skipped Roland Garros in recent years, so it remains to be seen whether we will see the Swiss superstar at the French Open again.
The way the market is shaping up suggests that we are short of clay-court specialists and everyone remains in thrall to the master Nadal. It isn't exactly difficult to make a strong case for the Spaniard who treats the Roland Garros show courts like a second home.
Like the WTA Tour as a whole, the French Open women's singles usually has a far more open feel to it. Romanian pro Simona Halep has been one of the more consistent players of recent years and reached three Roland Garros finals in the last six years.
She is made a nominal 9/2 favorite in the futures betting this time around but has only cleared the last hurdle in Paris once. Ashleigh Barty, meanwhile, is WTA world number one after winning the Tour Finals last fall.
The Australian also landed a first Grand Slam with French Open success in 2019. At 9/1, the only note of caution about Barty is her run at Roland Garros last year was very easy as she only defeated one fellow seeded player in the entire draw.
Time is running out for Serena Williams to add to her three French Open wins and secure that record-equalling 24th Grand Slam to match Margaret Court's all-time best haul. She turns 39 during the tournament but is the only other woman priced at shorter than 10/1 to be champion on clay.
Also, a straight-sets defeat of Serena put Canadian tennis talent Bianca Andreescu on the map, so she could be one of the players to watch out for in future tennis tournaments.
