Simona Halep will begin her French Open defense this Monday against Ajla Tomljanovic, who has faced the Romanian before, albeit in a different surface. Halep has been shaky heading into the French Open, so watch out for Tomljanovic to come with some extra confidence up her sleeve. Nevertheless, Halep is +350 to win her second French Open title in a row. See all available odds to win the 2019 French Open women’s singles here.
It’s been a topsy-turvy season for Tomljanovic, who has won five of her last 1o matches. That stretch includes her loss to Tamara Zidanek in the round of 16 in Nuremberg this month. Prior to that, she defeated Zidanek in the first round of the Rome Masters before running into a wall in the form of Karolina Pliskova in the next round. Tomljanovic’s loss to Zidanek offers lots of insights as to what she needs to get done before taking on Halep. First, she has to be more precise on her services. She only put 47 percent of her serves against Zidanek and got broken four times. At the very least, Tomljanovic won’t have as much butterflies in her stomach when she faces Halep, as she’s faced the defending Roland Garros women’s champ before. Tomljanovic managed to take the first set before losing the next two in a hard-court matchup with Halep at the Cincinnati Masters last year to the tune of a 4-6 6-3 6-3 score.
Betting on the Simona Halep (-650)
Halep has struggled in some matches of late, but some of those can be attributed to a cold she had to brave through in Madrid, where she made the finals but fell prey to Kiki Bertens to settle for a runner-up finish. Halep will take on Tomljanovic on the heels of an embarrassing and shocking first round loss to Marketa Vondrousova at the Rome Masters. In any case, Halep is expected by many to be a force at the French Open, her favorite Grand Slam. Halep has made the finals of the French Open three times in her past five appearances at Roland Garros, which, of course, includes her title last year. Halep is putting 69.5 percent of her first serves in this year and has scored on 65.6 percent of those. Given Tomljanovic’s penchant for making errors, Halep should have lots of opportunities to strike.
