{"id":105004,"date":"2026-05-19T00:54:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T04:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=105004"},"modified":"2026-05-19T00:54:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T04:54:24","slug":"wta-french-open-pigossi-liu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/05\/19\/wta-french-open-pigossi-liu\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA French Open Qualifying Best Bets Including Laura Pigossi vs Claire Liu"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The WTA French Open women\u2019s qualifying action continues. There are 128 spots in the main draw, and a lot of competition for the final places in that draw after the direct qualifiers. Playing in the first round of a major tournament is a given for the stars of tennis, but for the players ranked outside the top 100, it is often a career highlight and a very memorable moment. Let\u2019s see which players rise or fall under the pressure of major tournament qualifying. LWOS has our best bets for three matches. Post your best bets and thoughts in the comments.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>WTA French Open qualifying<\/b><\/h2>\n<h4><b>Pigossi \u2013 Liu: Time 15:00 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><b>H2H: 0-0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Laura Pigossi faces Claire Liu. Pigossi is ranked World No. 229, Liu No. 182. Both players have 11 clay match wins in 2026, though Pigossi has lost eight times on clay, Liu only four. Pigossi is 3-2 in her last five matches. Liu is on a five-match winning streak and just did win the Trnava ITF challenger event this past weekend before coming to Paris for the French Open.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Best Bet to Make<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Liu being the more in-form player and having success on clay is the most notable detail attached to either player. Pigossi isn\u2019t playing poorly, but Liu is clearly setting a higher standard. She has the better 2026 record on clay than her opponent. If you are lining up these two players in various ways, Liu obviously checks more boxes. Liu should be able to win this match cleanly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That being said, <\/span><b>betting on Liu winning 2:0 is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Value bet\/ the best odds: Liu winning 2:0 @1.86 @1xBet<\/b><\/p>\n<h4><b>Ponchet \u2013 Hon: Time 15:00 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><b>H2H: 0\u20131<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jessika Ponchet faces Priscilla Hon. Ponchet is ranked World No. 181, Hon No. 143. Ponchet, however, has seven clay match wins in 2026, whereas Hon has none. Hon has played only one clay match this year, so it\u2019s not as though she has lost a lot of clay matches. She just hasn\u2019t played much on the surface. Ponchet is 3-2 in her last five matches, Hon only 1-4. Hon\u2019s higher world ranking doesn\u2019t really translate into other points of comparison, which explains why Ponchet is the clear favorite on the betting markets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2022\/10\/Claire-Liu-Tokyo.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>Best Bet to Make<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ponchet is clearly more comfortable on clay and likes playing on clay more. She is in decent form whereas Hon is not. That\u2019s a good set of details which should inform your bet. Sometimes the information paints an unclear picture, but the profiles of these two players in 2026 point to Ponchet being able to score a convincing win. If she does, you\u2019ll get a great price for your wager.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That being said, <\/span><b>betting on Ponchet winning 2:0 is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Value bet\/ the best odds: Ponchet winning 2:0 @2.10 @Coral<\/b><\/p>\n<h4><b>Fruhvirtova \u2013 Havlickova: Time 15:00 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><b>H2H: 1\u20130<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Linda Fruhvirtova takes on Lucie Havlickova. Fruhvirtova is ranked World No. 150, Havlickova No. 210. Neither player has played much on clay in 2026. Fruhvirtova has played five clay matches this year and is 1-4. Havlickova has played six matches and is slightly better at 3-3. That\u2019s a very small sample size and a not-great differential between the two. Fruhvirtova is 1-4 in her last five matches, Havlickova is 2-3 in her last five.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Best Bet to Make<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This match is priced as a virtual toss-up. The moneyline odds for each player are nearly identical. However, picking a winner feels like a dart throw, and you shouldn\u2019t bet on competitions when that is the feeling you are getting. The better play when you can\u2019t make up your mind between two players on the moneyline is to bet on the match going three sets. Take over 2.5 sets for a great price.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That being said, <\/span><b>betting on over 2.5 sets is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Value bet\/ the best odds: over 2.5 sets @2.43 @Unibet<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Main Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-USA TODAY Sports \u00a0 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The WTA French Open women\u2019s qualifying action continues. There are 128 spots in the main draw, and a lot of competition for the final places in that draw after the direct qualifiers. Playing in the first round of a major tournament is a given for the stars of tennis, but for the players ranked outside [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5481,"featured_media":55705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17400,5,4],"tags":[43776,17399,1655,6124,17468,11658,16311,4210,15,5922],"class_list":["post-105004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-bets","category-french-open","category-wta","tag-2026-wta-french-open","tag-best-bets","tag-claire-liu","tag-jessika-ponchet","tag-laura-pigossi","tag-linda-fruhvirtova","tag-lucie-havlickova","tag-priscilla-hon","tag-wta","tag-wta-french-open"],"modified_by":"Kane Webb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5481"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105004"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105006,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105004\/revisions\/105006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}