French Open tennis tips: Cecchinato can outmuscle Zverev in third round upset
MARCO CECCHINATO can take Paris by storm on Friday.
The Italian journeyman is stunning value at 2/1 with Ladbrokes to get the better of top 10 big hitter Alexander Zverev in the third round of the French Open.
A former semi-finalist at Roland Garros, Cecchinato has been in the doldrums for a while but looks on the way back to his very best.
The 110-ranked Italian had to negotiate his way through three rounds of qualifying this campaign before taking the scalps of the dogged Alex De Minaur and capable clay-courter Juan Ignacio Londero.
Repeating either of those performances will cause Alex Zverev a big problem, particularly as he looked fatigued in his five-set win against Pierre-Hughes Herbert in round two.
Zverev has fashioned some fine results on clay in the past but Roland Garros has never been that kind to him and Cecchinato, who beat Novak Djokovic at this tournament back in 2018, is much more at home on the slow Paris courts.
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Best of the rest – Casper Ruud to take a set off Dominic Thiem
Dominic Thiem is arguably the second best clay courter in the world at the moment, but in Casper Ruud he faces a game similar to his own.
Both are big hitters and both have massive groundstrokes, so expect the battle to be a fierce one from the back of the court.
Norwegian wonderkid Casper Ruud has made great strides on clay in recent weeks and will be a big challenge to the former finalist. He looks good value at 10-11 to take a set off his rival.
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