11 Tennis Picks for May 30 French Open 2nd Round men’s matches: Abrams has Thiem, Monfils, Djokovic, Zverev, del Potro, Fognini, and more 

French Open
Stade Roland Garros
Paris, France
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Men’s Second Round Picks

Dominic Thiem over Alexander Bublik
Dominic Thiem is hitting bombs off his groundies and is doing his best to serve notice that he is all in on his quest for this championship. I think he’ll romp over Alexander Bublik, and if they both get to the semis, I hope he sends the cocky, over-confident faker, Novak Djokovic, home empty-handed.

Lucas Pouille over Martin Klizan
I’m not totally convinced that homeboy Lucas Pouille has overcome his 2019 blues, but if he plays like he did in the first round in beating Simon Bolelli, he’ll take out the very tough Martin Klizan and set up a third round encounter with another guy who needs some wins to put salve on his wounds, Karen Khachanov.

Novak Djokovic over Henri Laaksonen
Okay, the cat’s out of the bag. I don’t like Djokovic. I don’t like how he plays. I don’t like how he acts. I don’t like his bullshit after-match fake display that supposedly salutes the fans. And I’d like to see him go down. But he won’t lose to Henri Laaksonen.

Gael Monfils over Adrian Mannarino
These guys are going to play before more French tennis fans than your average Roland Garros second round match. Parisians love Monfils, and for very good reason. But this is a dangerous match for Monfils. He’s lost two out of three matches to fellow Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, and that’s a bad sign. Nonetheless, I’m going with Monfils because I just can’t imagine him losing here and now.

Sascha Zverev over Mikael Ymer
The last time these two played was in Juniors, and the black Swede gave the 5th seed a really tough run for his money. Zverev has come a long way since then and will be looking to climb all over Ymer, but I don’t expect that to happen. Although this will probably go four, based on records, Sascha should romp. He won’t.

Juan Martin del Potro over Yoshihito Nishioka
Del Potro must be healthy and playing well as he rolled over Nicolas Jarry in four in the first round. Nishioka, for his part, came away with a really nice five set win over American Mackie McDonald, but that’s about as far as he’s gonna go here. These guys have played once and del Potro rolled in straight sets in Delray Beach a couple of months ago. I’d expect more of the same.

Fernando Verdasco over Antoine Hoang
Both of these guys came through with good four set first round wins, and Antoine Hoang, a Frenchman, will have some fans out rooting for him. But the 35-year-old Spaniard has too much game for the homeboy and will send him home packing.

Fabio Fognini over Federico Delbonis
Fabio Fognini, a new hero of the Continent, is happy, and that means he’s playing good tennis. He’s played Delbonis six previous times and came away with a win on four of those occasions, and I’d expect him to want to get into the spotlight here in the City of Light. He’ll do that with a win here and now.

Dusan Lajovic over Elliot Benchetrit
Elliot Benchetrit, a 20-year-old Frenchman, had a really nice win over Cameron Norrie in the first round, and he should have some fans out to cheer him on here in the second round. But ultimately he’ll fall to Dusan Lajovic, who is making a name for himself this year and is playing very precise tennis.

Borna Coric over Lloyd Harris
Borna Coric is the 13th seed here, fully deserved, and you’d think that his draw would be pretty cushy, but there are very few cushy draws on the ATP Tour these days. Coric had to work to beat Aljaz Bedene in Round One, and he’ll have to work to beat Lloyd Harris, an unheralded young South African who was pushed to five sets in a first round win over lucky loser Lukas Rosol. Nonetheless, Coric will persevere, and stands an excellent chance of making a deeper run in this event.

Roberto Bautista Agut over Taylor Fritz
Both of these guys had easy first round matches, and this should be very interesting. RBA should win this fairly easily, but Fritz keeps surprising me. He’s been the lone American shinning star this Spring, and he beat RBA the last time they played (on clay) just a couple of weeks ago in Lyon. So, although I don’t see RBA going down, I’d expect, at this point, that Fritz will at least win a set and push the Spaniard a bit.