Men's French Open Betting: Murray and Kohlschreiber set for tough Paris battle

Sean is expecting at least four sets for Murray today

It's been a tough French Open for punters with shocks galore, but after calling the last five Andy Murray matches correctly, Sean Calvert looks to make that six today...

This year's French Open is unlikely to be another of those slams that slip by quietly and you don't really remember them.

The 2014 renewal of the clay court major has lurched from shocking to perplexing and at times utterly bizarre.

Friday's opening two sets by Tomas Berdych were tremendous and there can't have been many people expecting what we saw yesterday from the Czech after a poor clay swing prior to his match with Roberto Bautista-Agut.

At times Berdych's play reminded me of a peak Robin Soderling when he cut down Rafa Nadal here in Rafa's only loss at the French Open and poor old RBA was blown away in sets one and two - as pretty much anyone would have been.

RBA did make a fight of it after that following the inevitable Berdych dip, but he had too big a mountain to climb and went down in four sets.

There was better news for backers of my tip of minus 5.5 games on Jo-Wilfried Tsonga over Jerzy Janowicz, as that one came in relatively comfortably, but again the bad luck lurked, as the 'most aces' bet went down by the one that JJ struck in his final service game.

Andy Murray plays again on Saturday at around 4pm UK time and despite having called his last five matches correctly, this could be a test for me, as he faces the equally unreliable Philipp Kohlschreiber.

The German will be in a confident mood after landing the Dusseldorf title last week and moving through the first couple of rounds here without dropping a set and this is likely to be a big challenge for the Scot.

Murray and Kohlschreiber have played twice before, with the score tied at 1-1, but it's been four years since they last met and little can be read into that head-to-head.

Andy has been playing some decent stuff on the clay of late and he should win this match, but he doesn't move well enough on the dirt and his second serve always looks punishable against the better players, so I can't see it being comfortable.

Marinko Matosevic was no sort of challenge and I think this one could be at least four sets, with the over 37.5 total games looking the call here at around 1.845/6.

Kohlschreiber's awful record against top-10 opposition puts me off the win on him, with just one win in his last 13 - and that was against Richard Gasquet.

The last time he beat a top-10 ranked player on clay? Andy Murray in Monte-Carlo back in 2010. He's lost all 12 since then.

The German's beaten opponent in that Dusseldorf final was Ivo Karlovic, who's suddenly started to find some results on the red dirt, but surely Kevin Anderson will overcome the big Croatian in their 12pm start today.

Ivo will be starting to feel it after 18 sets of clay court tennis in heavy conditions in the last 13 days and if this turns into a long one - which it may well do - the 35-year-old's legs will probably go.

Anderson has played just the six sets in the same timescale and he has power off both wings as well as his big serve, while Ivo's only good side is the forehand.

It all points to an Anderson win here and 1.584/7 seems fair enough.

The Fabio Fognini/Gael Monfils clash should be hilarious, but not one I'd like to bet on in any circumstances, while it's a bit of guesswork regarding Richard Gasquet's fitness at the moment.

Dickie faces Fernando Verdasco for an incredible 16th time today, with the score 8-7 in the Gasman's favour. Again, I can't see much that would tempt to bet in that one, with the Frenchman's back bound to become an issue if it goes long.

Recommended Bets
Back over 37.5 total games in Murray/Kohlschreiber at 1.845/6
Back Anderson to beat Karlovic at 1.584/7