French Open, 2nd round, Wednesday, 29.05.2024
While most sports fans are already waiting to finally place their first Euro 2024 bets, the French Open has begun in tennis. The German Maximilian Marterer is already in the 2nd round!
On Wednesday, he will face a man who knocked out the currently strong Alejandro Tabilo, which will probably also be the reason for his underdog role. In my Bergs Marterer tip, I’ll tell you why I’d pick the Belgian despite crossing my fingers
It was an absolutely perfect debut for Maximilian Marterer! The 28-year-old delivered an impeccable performance in his first round at the French Open, and hardly anyone had expected such a clear result.
Not only did he win against Jordan Thompson, he dispatched the Australian with a superb 6-3, 6-2, 6-0. He seemed to get stronger with every rally and his opponent never had a chance to get back into the match.
Marterer only conceded one break and a 79% winning rate on his second serve reads really strong. Was such a breakthrough to be expected, has the German been playing strongly since the start of the clay court season?
You can’t really say that. Most recently in Turin he had to retire with an injury, in Rome he was eliminated directly after qualifying and in Madrid even during qualifying.
At his home tournament in Munich, he tried his best but was extremely unlucky to lose 7-6, 6-7, 6-7 to Felix Auger-Aliassime. It reads unbelievable, but: Before the French Open, he had won ONE match outside the qualifiers in 2024!
To come to Paris with a record like that and then to fire off a clear victory against Thompson is a real statement. Does Marterer particularly like Grand Slams?
Roland Garros, at least, is not something he has done particularly well at, in fact only once. In May 2018, six years ago, he played great and actually reached the round of 16
In the end, he lost to Rafael Nadal, but that happens to almost everyone in Paris. The man from Nuremberg usually doesn’t manage to make up for his best form, but now he really got off to a great start.
He has never played Zizou Bergs in the main draw before, but the two players have crossed paths three times in qualifying in 2021. Bergs won twice and Marterer once.
If we look at our German betting providers, we can see odds of 2.20 to 1.60 for Maximilian Marterer.
Zizou Bergs is therefore favored, in the world rankings he is exactly three places behind the German (104 to 101). These three places were enough to get the Belgian into qualifying
There he performed quite well, beating Clement Chidekh, Joris De Loore and Mathias Bourgoue. Arriving in the 1st round, nobody actually expected his path to continue.
Bergs was up against Alejandro Tabilo, the man who had knocked out Novak Djokovic in Rome and only failed to beat Alexander Zverev in three sets in the semi-finals. In short: hardly anyone could have imagined Bergs winning.
However, the 24-year-old (his birthday is on June 3, will he still be celebrating it in Paris?) put in a very courageous performance right from the start and finally snatched a 3-6, 7-6, 6-2, 6-2.
If he can minimize the seven double faults, he should also have a good chance of winning on Wednesday. He took nine out of eleven break chances, and this coolness was definitely a key to his success.
Bergs has never before reached the second round of a Grand Slam tournament, so he has already achieved his best result on the big stage – so Marterer really has a head start on him
My Bergs Marterer tip
Maximilian Marterer has played his way into this French Open with a truly brilliant performance! Of course, that caught my attention, but I haven’t forgotten who he’s facing now.
Zizou Bergs played two Challenger finals in April for a reason (he also won one) and celebrated a victory over Alejandro Tabilo, the strong Chilean, in Paris. And Marterer? He won just once on clay before Roland Garros.
Although I expect a relatively close duel, I think the small, decisive advantages are more likely to be on Belgium’s side. That’s why my tip is:
Bergs beats Marterer!
