The French Open continues on Wednesday with a slate of Round 2 matches headlined by tournament favorites Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic.
Alcaraz is a massive favorite over Japanese scrapper Taro Daniel, while Djokovic is -3000 to beat World No. 83 Marton Fucsovics of Hungary.
While neither Alcaraz nor Djokovic are expected to have too much trouble on Wednesday, there is one seeded that could be put under some pressure at Roland Garros.
Lucas Pouille (+310) vs. Cam Norrie (-400)
The story of the French Open so far is the resurgence of Lucas Pouille.
The former World No. 10 fell off the tennis map after an injury at the end of 2019 saw him sidelined until 2021.
Upon returning to action it was clear Pouille was not the same player as he was before surgery and the 29-year-old later explained that he was battling depression and turned to alcohol to deal with the pressures of being a professional tennis player.
Ranked No. 670 in the world before the French Open, Pouille needed to get through qualifying to get into the main draw.
With the crowd on his side, the Frenchman earned his spot in Roland Garros with a win over Jurij Rodionov in the final round of qualification.
In a funky twist, Rodionov would get a ‘lucky loser’ slot in the tournament proper and would end up drawing Pouille in Round 1.
Pouille would win the match in straight sets, putting him on a collision course with No. 14 Cam Norrie in Round 2.
While Pouille had no issues with Rodionov in Round 1, Norrie needed every bit of five sets to dispatch another popular Frenchman, Benoit Paire, in his opening match.
Norrie was down two sets to one before taking over the match against the World No. 149.
Norrie’s game is built for five-set tennis and his fitness is what makes him an elite player on the ATP Tour, but he’s not in the best of form at the moment and has struggled to string together strong results during the European clay season.
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Norrie also doesn’t really have the toolkit to overwhelm any player, which makes his margins for error quite thin.
With a raucous crowd behind him, Pouille should ask plenty of questions of Norrie on Wednesday and is worth a bet to pull off the upset.
French Open pick
Lucas Pouille +310 (FanDuel)
