tennis | Wednesday, May 25, 2022 12:54 PM (Revised at: Wednesday, May 25, 2022 8:11 PM)

Thursday's Tennis Best Bet: French Open, May 26th

Jon Reid

WTA French Open Best Bet: Zidansek vs Sherif

Thursday, May 26th, TBD

Well, Wednesday’s selection was a wash, as Marie Bouzkova ended up withdrawing late into the day on Tuesday. For Thursday’s second-round match, it’s to the other half of the women’s draw as Tamara Zidansek takes on Mayar Sherif.

In a match that saw both women come through as slight underdogs on their favourite surface, it’s the Slovenian you should be looking to back on Thursday.

Credit to Sherif for playing an excellent match against Marta Kostyuk in her first taste of action at Roland Garros this season, but Zidansek is different for a few reasons. First, Kostyuk is more of a power player. It’s all or nothing with her from the baseline, and Sherif was able to use her topspin forehand to move Kostyuk around and force her to hit with more margin. That’s not something the Ukrainian is used to doing, meaning many shots were landing relatively short, keeping Sherif in control of the ball.

That won’t be the case against Zidansek, who is apt on the clay, and knows how to deal with spin and return with depth.

Further, Zidansek is by nature a clay courter. She’s also better at it than Sherif. She’s strong off both wings, has improved her serve slightly in the last few years and plays with spin and plenty of rally tolerance. She won’t be giving too many free points to Sherif, and outside of that big first serve, she’s an incredibly tactical returner and will be a threat to constantly drag points in Sherif’s service games into neutral rallies.

Her movement is also strong, and that’s the biggest advantage either player has in this match. While Sherif is suited to the clay, and her serve and forehand (both power and topspin wise) are strong, her movement will always be a concern. It’s really what has kept her from breaking through from the WTA 125K level and lower-tier WTA 250s to bigger events on the red dirt.

With more pedigree, solid clay court prowess and being the much better mover, Zidansek should be favoured by more in the betting markets ahead of this second-round clash.