French Open Day 2 (Monday)

Kyle Edmund flies the English flag on Monday, as he takes on home favourite Jeremy Chardy – a match which will be their third meeting on clay. They have shared their previous two meetings, with just a single game between them so far – and both of those matches were in 2017.

Both are established clay courters of course – Chardy has played 41% of his career matches on the red dirt, winning 57% of them, while Edmund has played 40% of his matches on clay, winning an impressive 68%.

The bookies are struggling to split the pair, and a lazy view of the match could easily lead one to favour Chardy – given Edmund comes here on the back of five successive clay court defeats. However the capable Fernando Verdasco, Fabio Fognini and Diego Schwatzman were all among those who beat him, so it’s not unfair to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Chardy himself has lost 11 of his last 17 matches on all surfaces stretching back into January so is hardly enjoying himself either. Over the past 52 weeks, looking at all clay matches against players ranked 10-100, Edmund has recorded a 99% combined serve/receive rate, which compares very favourably to Chardy’s 95.5. The main difference coming in their return success.

That’s likely to be key in a tight match here, and Edmund therefore holds the value at 3/4 with a number of layers.

1pt Edmund to beat Chardy at 3/4 (General)

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