France, Paris.
In the third round of the men’s Roland Garros, the world No.2, Daniil Medvedev will meet with Reilly Opelka, the world No. 35. The men met three times on the tour, 2-1 on the Russian side with Opelka winning the last face-to-face match at the St. Petersburg tournament.
Reilly Opelka: He’s not a bad clay-court player
Reilly Opelka played three clay tournaments before Roland Garros. The American failed in Madrid and Geneva, but at the Rome Masters, the world No. 35 reached the semi-finals, where he lost to Rafael Nadal 4-6, 4-6. In Paris, Opelka played two matches, losing only one set to Munar, beating Martin to nil. The second-round match against Munar lasted two hours and 41 minutes. The Spaniard won only the third set. In the fourth game, the men played 12 games, Opelka was stronger 7-5.
Daniil Medvedev: Best Roland Garros of his career
We can already say that Daniil plays the best Roland Garros of his career. Let us remind you that before this tournament the second racket of the world had never won at Roland Garros, losing four times in a row already in the first round. And now Daniil will play his third match at the competition. Before Roland Garros, Daniil did not have much to brag about, one victory over Davidovich Fokina and two defeats by Garin and Karatsev. And not the most successful UTC tournament. On the other hand, Medvedev is doing well at Roland Garros. He defeated Alexander Bublik in the first round and Paul 3-1 in the second round. Medvedev lost the first set 3-6 to Paul. But after that the Russian won three games in a row, losing only 8 games in that period. We noticed that Medvedev played an excellent game against Bublik, he was focused and had a solid game plan. With Paul, it was a lower quality match, for example, his winners/unforced errors total was 30:32. Thankfully the opponent made even more mistakes. Let’s see how Daniil does in the next round.
Expert Betting Tips
Opelka on the clay court is as unstable as Medvedev. The Russian is gaining his form, at least in the first two rounds Daniil looked very confident. We hope that his progress will continue and we will see the Russian in the fourth round of the clay. Here are the following bets for the game: Тotal Under 39.5 for 1.81, Handicap 2 (-4.5) for 1.80.