French Open 2025 | Men’s Day 5 Tips & Preview

They meet in the 2nd Round if this tournament for the second year in a row and if last year is anything to go by, Gasquet is in trouble. The Frenchman won a total of only 10 games in their clash 12 months ago and it wasn’t close despite him playing well. Sinner improved to 3-0 lifetime against Gasquet with that result and will not be tested here. Gasquet is weeks away from his 39h birthday and the last time he won consecutive ATP Tour main draw matches was back in August 2023. He will hit a handful of backhand winners that will draw a standing ovation but will not go close to winning a set.

A crafty left-hander, Moutet regularly causes opponents trouble with his variety and unpredictability. That does not apply to Djokovic who holds a 2-0 edge in the H2H and has won all four sets that the pair have contested. Djokovic posted a 6-3 6-1 victory in their most recent meeting at the Rome Masters and was able to break serve 6 times in two sets. He feasted on the Moutet 2nd serve by winning 64% of those points. Knowing this, I expec Moutet to take the speed of his first serve so that he can make more than 70% of his 1st serves but this will have no bearing on the outcome.

De Jong has win over Fonseca and Davidovich Fokina on clay this season but will have to overcome a comprehensive 6-2 6-2 loss to Zverev a little more than a year ago on clay in Hamburg. He failed to generate a single break point in that match and the concern for him here is that Zverev served lights out in his win over Tien. The teenager failed to convert any of his four break opportunities and Zverev won an incredible 90% of 1st serve points. Anything close to those numbers here would make it near impossible for De Jong to break serve.

There is a reason why tournament organisers give Gael Monfils a prime time slot – because he delivers entertainment like nobody else. He came from two sets down against Dellien and has now won more 5 set matches at the French Open than any other player in history! Taking on one of the top seeds, he will again be given the night match slot on centre court but this is a very different matchup to Dellien. Draper has the power both on serve and from the baseline that will prevent Monfils from being effective by staying deep and trying to counter. If he is to win a set it will be by a narrow margin but I can see him letting at least one set go to potentially conserve energy. This makes Draper to cover the handicap a great play.