Men's French Open Betting: Murray to pass Monfils test in rainy Paris

Sean thinks we'll see more of this from Andy Murray today

Andy Murray is in quarter final action at the French Open this afternoon and Sean Calvert likes the chances of the Brit to move on to the last four at the expense of Gael Monfils...

This most frustrating of grand slams took one more step towards becoming the most painful in recent memory on Tuesday, as another perfectly good bet missed from looking very good indeed.

At *5-6, 30-0, Milos Raonic just needed two more points to send us into a first set tie break against Novak Djokovic, but went for too much, made two double faults and two unforced errors off the ground to hand the set to the Serb 7-5.

Then, rather typically, Raonic did send the second set into a tie break from the same position, but make a hash of it from 4-4 and the chances of my 3-1 Djokovic bet landing were also gone.

Today's schedule features what could be another tough match to predict in a tournament of weird results when the clown prince Gael Monfils takes on Andy Murray on Chatrier at around 3pm UK time on Wednesday.

Monfils versus Fabio Fognini was perhaps the high point of clownery in this year's French Open, but knowing Murray and Lamonf this one could be just about anything, with my preference being for the Brit.

It will be the first time that this pair have met across the net since 2010, which was also in Paris at the Bercy indoor tournament and Gael was the winner that day, while Murray has won four of their six career matches.

Monfils also won their 2006 French Open five setter from 2-1 down, but all of their clashes were a long time ago and I think this is a pretty good match-up for Murray.

France's last remaining hope at this tournament was in full defensive mode against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who threw in a shocker in the fourth round and it will be interesting to see what tactics Gael employs this time around.

Sitting back and waiting for a Murray error seems a poor tactical choice to me and for Andy's part a repeat of the sort of display he produced against Fernando Verdasco would do very nicely.

The slower Chatrier court may well favour Monfils, but I would expect Murray to deal better with the rain delays that are forecast to disrupt proceedings on Wednesday, with Lamonf's level the more likely to be affected by it.

Physically, it's a toss-up as to who is the fitter right now, with Monfils recovering very easily against GGL following claims that he was "dying" in the Fognini match.

Gael has only once been past this last eight stage of the French Open and I don't trust him at all to win big matches when the pressure is on. I'd be surprised if he was able to buck that trend today.

It's hard to see Murray winning back-to-back matches in straight sets and with this being his first encounter with Chatrier this tournament he will probably need to make some adjustments, so Gael will likely grab a set, making the 3-1 on Andy the call here at around 4.03/1.

Recommended Bet
Back Murray to beat Monfils 3-1 at 4.03/1