French Open second round preview and predictions, featuring Alexander Zverev and Joao Fonseca
Second-round competition at the tennis season’s second Grand Slam gets underway on Wednesday at Roland Garros. Among those taking the court at the French Open are Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Elena Rybakina, and Iga Swiatek. None of those title contenders had any trouble in their opening-round matches.
It was a rough start, however, for the Canadian contingent on Monday, when Leylah Fernandez was upset by Alycia Parks in straight sets. It remains to be seen how the likes of Felix Auger-Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov, and Victoria Mboko will fare. For now, let’s take a look at some of the second-round matchups at Roland Garros and discuss the best bets to make.
Check out our tennis odds page for the latest futures and match betting.
Joao Fonseca vs. Dino Prizmic best bet: Prizmic ML (+127)
For diehard tennis fans, this is the marquee matchup on Tuesday’s order of play. Not only is it a battle between two of the ATP Tour’s rising stars, but the winner is also likely to face Djokovic in round three (if Djokovic gets past little-known Frenchman Valentin Royer). This should be one of the most entertaining second-round matches in Paris – one in which Dino Prizmic has great value as the underdog.
Joao Fonseca is favoured because he is a much bigger name at this point and is ranked higher (No. 30 to No. 72), but Prizmic has played superior tennis lately. The 20-year-old Croat recently reached the Madrid third round as a qualifier and the Rome fourth round as a qualifier, upsetting Ben Shelton at the former event and Djokovic at the latter. Prizmic lost a total of five games during his first-round beatdown of Michael Zhang on Sunday. Fonseca is in decent enough form – but “decent” may not be good enough to defeat Prizmic right now. The 19-year-old Brazilian is certainly on upset alert.
Alexander Zverev vs. Tomas Machac best bet: Over 34.5 games (-120)
Given that Carlos Alcaraz is missing from the French Open, Alexander Zverev is favoured to reach the final from a wide-open bottom half of the draw and ultimately meet Jannik Sinner in the championship match. However, a potentially serious roadblock awaits the second-ranked German in round two.
You never know what you are going to get from Tomas Machac on any given day, but he can be among the best players in the world when his game is firing. The 43rd-ranked Czech was clinical throughout a straight-set victory over Zizou Bergs on Sunday, so that should give him confidence moving forward into this Tuesday night showdown. Zverev has an extensive history of playing five-setters at Roland Garros, and another relatively lengthy affair could be in store for the second seed.
Sorana Cirstea vs. Eva Lys best bet: Cirstea -1.5 sets (-138)
Sorana Cirstea has announced that she will retire at the end of 2026, but she might want to reconsider those plans based on how well she is playing. Heck, at this rate, it seems like the 36-year-old could successfully continue for several more seasons. She boasts a 28-8 match record this year, and her only clay-court losses have come to Coco Gauff (twice) and Mirra Andreeva.
Cirstea needed three sets to defeat Eva Lys in round one of the Australian Open earlier this season, but they have since gone in very different directions. Lys has struggled physically and owns just a 4-8 match record for her 2026 campaign. The 81st-ranked German would be hard-pressed simply to take a set in this matchup.