The night-session crowd at Roland Garros will be coming out to see Gael Monfils on Thursday, when he goes up against Lorenzo Musetti. A jam-packed schedule also includes Holger Rune vs. Flavio Cobolli.
Gael Monfils vs. (30) Lorenzo Musetti
Monfils played an absolute circus of a match in the French Open first round last spring and was unable to play two days later (withdrew against Holger Rune). The 37th-ranked Frenchman’s 2024 opener against Thiago Seyboth Wild wasn’t as physically taxing as the 2023 thriller against Sebastian Baez, but it also wasn’t easy (6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4) and Monfils is 37 years old with a slew of injuries in his past.
He will have to be 100 percent if he wants to advance again on Thursday night, because Musetti represents a very tough test on clay. The 30th-ranked Italian has reached the fourth round at Roland Garros twice and pushed Novak Djokovic to five sets in 2021. Although the 2024 campaign has not been a good one for Musetti, he probably built some confidence with a 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 thrashing of Daniel Elahi Galan on Monday. Monfils won the only previous meeting between the two players 7-6(2), 6-4 three years ago in Vienna, but that was on an indoor hard court. There is obviously a chance that Monfils comes to play both mentally and physically in front of the home crowd, but at this point in their respective careers Musetti is the more reliable player.
Pick: Musetti in 3
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Flavio Cobolli vs. (13) Holger Rune
Rune is thought to have the makings of a future French Open champion; with the 2024 title relatively up for grabs, that time could be now. Unfortunately for the 13th-ranked Dane, he has been in far from spectacular form pretty much ever since leaving Wimbledon last summer following a quarterfinal performance. Rune most recently lost to Jan-Lennard Struff 6-2, 6-0 in the Munich semis, to Tallon Griekspoor in the Madrid third round, and to Sebastian Baez in the Rome third round.
The 21-year-old erased Dan Evans 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday, but the clay-court competition gets considerably more difficult with Cobolli on the other side of the net. The 22-year-old Italian has been one of the tour’s breakout stars in 2024, with 16 of his 22 ATP-level wins coming this season. Cobolli is coming off a semifinal run in Geneva and he scored a very good win over 2023 NextGen ATP Finals champion Hamad Medjedovic in the French Open first round. It looks like the time is right for the world No. 53 to really have his coming out party on tour.
Pick: Cobolli in 5
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WWW?
Oops
both of these were outstanding picks
nobody else had Musetti in 3. Nobody else gave Cobolli a chance.
Cobolli should’ve won. Rune got lucky and they celebrated like were also.
I don’t particularly agree with coaches celebrating like that also but each to their own.
Why should Cobolli have won? Not if you look at the stats but sure Cobolli have been in great form of late so he had a good shot and he had the best start in the tiebreaker but they way Rune finished was amazing. Not many could have come back from 0-5 down.
You dont agree with coaches celebrating during football matches either? Wake up
It’s possible that fatigue tipped it in favour of Rune in a 5th set TB but almost impossible predict or quantify it.
Thought you had Cobolli losing early.
nope
Maybe Flavio gets a set. And if it goes to 5, it’s possible Flavio wins. But I’ll stay with Rune.
Rune in 3 or 4.
I do agree about Elina’s husband. But he will make it a show out there!
Musetti is my bracket pick.
I’ll be cheering for Monfils 😀
Musetti in 3….Rune in 4.
Oops. Just noticed I had Fils in bracket and he lost. Meant to go Arnaldi
I have to be careful posting here too early from now on because the players read it.
Or better still, stop posting altogether.
We all know Djokovic plays like a man possessed whenever I predict he will lose. Same probably with Tsitsipas and others.
I didn’t see Arnaldi coming after Rublev’s last performance that’s for sure. Big upset and straight sets too.
For some reason, I can’t reply directly to the response above, but to answer your question: Cobolli probably wins that match on paper without factoring in other externalities. However, it just proves that in many cases, it’s within a player’s power to defy the probabilities. It’s not easy to do, but always possible; otherwise, there would be no point in playing if predictions became so accurate that you knew the result before the match started.
Youre gonna have to explain why he would ever win that match on paper?
True he had more upside lately but you cant tell me he is a better player overall. Id call it 3-1 Rune on paper.
There are so many emotions for the coaches aswell. You cant expect them to just sit there and not do anything in that situation.
Thats What sport is about.. you have a winner and a loser in the end and if you shouldnt be able to celebrate, Whats the point
IMO, coaches in tennis should draw a line between how much they celebrate for their own player and putting the sport first. A degree of empathy needs to go to the other player especially considering the circumstances.