tennis | Monday, May 22, 2023 8:28 AM (Revised at: Monday, May 29, 2023 7:18 AM)

Monday Tennis Best Bet: ATP French Open, Zizou Bergs vs Steve Johnson

Jon Reid

Zizou Bergs vs Steve Johnson Best Bet: Monday, May 22nd

Rough ending to the week as Borna Gojo looked like he was ready to head to Paris to get ready for his qualifying campaign at the French Open. An oversight on my part when evaluating the staking size.

For Monday, let’s head to the aforementioned qualifying at Roland Garros and preview the match between Zizou Bergs and Steve Johnson.

In this article:

Zizou Bergs vs Steve Johnson Preview
Zizou Bergs vs Steve Johnson Best Bet

Zizou Bergs vs Steve Johnson Preview

May 22nd, 12:00 (UK Time)

I’m not sure why Johnson continues to get any kind of respect in these conditions, but I have no problem with looking to exploit the mistakes in the market.

For starters, the American has never been at his best on clay. He doesn’t move well, his footwork takes a big hit on the dirt and his power-centric and backhand-slice heavy game is far better suited to quicker and lower-bouncing courts.

Factor in his age and decline in ability and this seems like a much heavier mismatch than the market has it at.

Johnson was also just dismantled at a Challenger Tour event in Portugal last week, losing by nine games to a solid Nicolas Moreno de Alboran.

Now he takes on Bergs, who can be frustratingly erratic at times, but is younger, far more talented and much more natural on the surface.

The Belgian had a tough time early on in 2023, but Bergs managed to win a Challenger event on quicker green clay in the United States about a month ago and then followed that up with another quarterfinal appearance the following week.

Zizou Bergs vs Steve Johnson Best Bet

While his return game can sometimes leave something to be desired, the advantages in form, fitness, surface and overall talent level at the moment are far too much here for me to ignore.

The 23-year-old is at least two breaks better than his American counterpart in this match, and I could make the case this handicap should be -4.5 games.

At -3 games in the 1.85 price range, I’m looking to place a rather large wager to take advantage.