{"id":105106,"date":"2026-05-20T00:04:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T04:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=105106"},"modified":"2026-05-20T00:04:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T04:04:30","slug":"wta-french-open-costoulas-hontama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/05\/20\/wta-french-open-costoulas-hontama\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA French Open Qualifying Best Bets Including Sofia Costoulas vs Mai Hontama"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The WTA French Open women\u2019s qualifying action moves into the second round. The players trying to get into the main draw in Paris next week have made their way through one round of qualifying. Now comes the even bigger pressure of taking the next step to the second major tournament of 2026. Are we going to see players carry their form into this second round of qualifying, or will we see players who won in the first round get really nervous and lose focus? This is why these matches are so interesting. 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>Chwalinska \u2013 Monnet: Time 12:00 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><b>H2H: 1-2<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Maja Chwalinska faces Carole Monnet. Chwalinska dominated her first-round qualifying match against Alice Rame, losing only three games and winning one set 6-0. She looked excellent. Carole Monnet was able to get through her match against Polina Iatcenko but needed three sets to advance in a very up-and-down kind of match. Chwalinska is the more in-form player entering this match, and that\u2019s why she has been installed as a heavy favorite.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Best Bet to Make<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chwalinska is being priced as a large favorite, which is fair and appropriate, so you won\u2019t even get that much of a price from a Chwalinska straight set bet. This means the game spread is where the prices are relatively even. The most evenly-priced number for the game spread is 6.5. If Monnet did not have a 2-1 head-to-head series lead over Chwalinska, we might fully trust Chwalinska\u2019s form and bet on her against the spread, but Monnet\u2019s familiarity with Chwalinska\u2019s game and her proven ability to beat Chwalinska makes us think Monnet can keep the match close enough to cover the spread.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That being said, <\/span><b>betting on Monnet +6.5 games is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Value bet\/ the best odds: Monnet +6.5 games @1.87 @1xBet<\/b><\/p>\n<h4><b>Papamichail \u2013 Guo: Time 12:00 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><b>H2H: 0\u20130<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despina Papamichail faces Hanyu Guo. Papamichail beat top-seeded Lanlana Tararudee in the first round of qualifying, while Guo managed to beat Miriam Bulgaru in her first-round qualifying match. We liked Papamichail against the spread against Tararudee, and our instincts were accurate there. We thought Guo might have a straightforward match Bulgaru, but she needed three sets to win. Can Guo improve her level of play in this second-round qualifying match?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2023\/04\/USATSI_7275230_168392940_lowres-e1682054482847.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>Best Bet to Make<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Papamichail beat Tararudee despite being the much lower-ranked player due to her comfort level on clay. Tararudee stayed on hardcourts in the challenger circuit. Papamichail focused more on clay, and it showed in that first-round qualifying match. Guo has had some wins on clay in 2026, with four, but Papamichail has nine wins on the surface this year. We think Papamichail can win at least one set, and you\u2019ll get decent value for that bet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That being said, <\/span><b>betting on Papamichail +1.5 sets is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Value bet\/ the best odds: Papamichail +1.5 sets @1.73 @Coral<\/b><\/p>\n<h4><b>Costoulas \u2013 Hontama: Time 12:00 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><b>H2H: 0\u20130<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sofia Costoulas faces Mai Hontama. Costoulas moved smoothly through her first round of qualifying against Tereza Mrdeza. Hontama looked very good in her first-round qualifying win over Taylah Preston. Both players started this qualifying tournament on the right foot. Now they meet and will try to pull off the balancing act of maintaining their own good form while trying to make the other play a little worse. Which player will maintain her strength, and which one will display more of her weaknesses?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Best Bet to Make<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Costoulas beat Mrdeza, a 35-year-old player who represented a favorable matchup in the first round. Hontama defeated Preston, a player ranked close to 100 spots higher on the WTA Tour. Hontama clearly overachieved in her victory while Costoulas merely did what she was supposed to do. Hontama might not win the match outright, but she is priced by the markets as a substantial underdog. You will get value for taking Hontama plus 1.5 sets, so go with that as your bet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That being said, <\/span><b>betting on Hontama +1.5 sets is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Value bet\/ the best odds: Hontama +1.5 sets @1.85 @Unibet<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Main Photo Credit: Robert Prange-USA TODAY Sports <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The WTA French Open women\u2019s qualifying action moves into the second round. The players trying to get into the main draw in Paris next week have made their way through one round of qualifying. Now comes the even bigger pressure of taking the next step to the second major tournament of 2026. Are we going [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5481,"featured_media":51089,"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":[43776,17399,17655,17466,43204,16876,17843,43480,15,5922],"class_list":["post-105106","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-carole-monnet","tag-despina-papamichail","tag-hanyu-guo","tag-mai-hontama","tag-maja-chwalinska","tag-sofia-costoulas","tag-wta","tag-wta-french-open"],"modified_by":"Kane Webb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105106","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=105106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105107,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105106\/revisions\/105107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}