French Open - Thiem v Zverez (Tue)

Much has been made of the time spent on-court for Alexander Zverev already this week - the running total approaching twelves hours after his 2nd, 3rd and 4th round matches went the distance. The market has moved well and truly in Thiem's favour, and it's hard not to attribute most of that move to that simple factor.

We've previously discussed the importance of keeping early round matches to the minimum for players with genuine desires to win Grand Slams so won't go over that again, but it's fair to say the evidence is strong that Slam winners don't generally spend 12 hours in the heat just to get to the quarter-finals.

As such, although I feel the move may have gone too far, I'm about to wheel out the cannons and fight it back.

Instead, a bet on Zverev reaching a fourth consecutive fifth set could be worth backing given a few factors.

Firstly, this is a pretty level match between two accomplished clay court players begining to really prove themselves and hoping to step up into the Elite group.

Thiem has already taken down Lyon and Buenos Aires this season, and reached the final in Madrid, while Zverev is now ranked 3rd in the World, and has won Madrid, the BMW Open in Munich and found only Rafael Nadal too good to prevent Rome joining that clay list.

Secondly, they have a good history of level matches. Having met six times in the last 2.5 seasons, four of the matches have gone the distance (in best of three formats), while their meeting here in 2016 went four sets.

With all that in mind, a small play on the match to go to five looks a fair enough investment at 11/5.

1pt Match to go to Five Sets at 11/5 (Betway, General)

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