{"id":105364,"date":"2026-05-23T23:27:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T03:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=105364"},"modified":"2026-05-23T23:27:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T03:27:17","slug":"wta-french-open-svitolina-bondar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/05\/23\/wta-french-open-svitolina-bondar\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA French Open First Round Best Bets Including Elina Svitolina vs Anna Bondar"},"content":{"rendered":"

The WTA French Open action begins. The 2026 edition of Roland Garros gets underway, as the second major tournament of the year and the one clay major arrives in Paris. This should be a very interesting women\u2019s tournament, since there is no clear or obvious favorite going in. Iga Swiatek had a solid Rome tournament but lost to Elina Svitolina and is still not the dominant player she once was. Aryna Sabalenka is the top seed but has struggled recently. Coco Gauff is the defending champion but has been involved in a lot of three-set matches in recent weeks. The lack of predictability adds to the excitement around the event. It all starts on Sunday. LWOS has our best bets for three matches. Post your best bets and thoughts in the comments.<\/span><\/p>\n

WTA French Open\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

Svitolina \u2013 Bondar: Time 5:00 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n

H2H: 2-2<\/b><\/p>\n

Elina Svitolina begins her 2026 French Open campaign against Anna Bondar. Svitolina went through Elena Rybakina, Iga Swiatek, and Coco Gauff to win the Rome title. She has won Rome before, which means that winning Rome has not easily flowed into French Open success. Svitolina is a very good 1,000-point tournament player. She has not been as successful at the major tournaments, including the French Open. Bondar, ranked No. 58, is a solid player. She beat Svitolina in Madrid, so this becomes an especially interesting first-round matchup in which Svitolina will be out for revenge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Best Bet to Make<\/b><\/p>\n

Bondar\u2019s recent win could lead a number of bettors to pick Bondar against the set or game spread, but the other way to look at this is that Svitolina is not going to lose to Bondar twice in a row. More than that, Svitolina is likely to make adjustments and come into this match intent on making a statement to her opponent. This is where Svitolina does get revenge and puts together a strong performance, filled with confidence after winning Rome. You won\u2019t get enough of a price on Svitolina winning in straight sets to make a bet worthwhile (1.55). You will get more value from the game spread, with the evenly-priced number being 5.5 games.<\/span><\/p>\n

That being said, <\/span>betting on Svitolina -5.5 games is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/ the best odds: Svitolina -5.5 games @1.90 @bwin<\/b><\/p>\n

Volynets \u2013 Burel: Time 6:30 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n

H2H: 0\u20130<\/b><\/p>\n

Katie Volynets faces Clara Burel. Volynets is ranked just outside the top 100, while Burel is well outside the top 1000. Volynets is a respectable 3-2 in her last five matches. Burel hasn\u2019t played a whole lot this spring clay season. She has played only three matches since the Bille Jean King Cup on April 9. All three of those matches, in three different tournaments, were losses. Burell will try to find form and momentum in Paris, but it\u2019s hard to gain momentum when playing one match per week and not being able to play another match the next day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Best Bet to Make<\/b><\/p>\n

The bet here is less about trusting Volynets and more about fading Burel. It\u2019s simply impossible to find an angle where Burel is worth betting on in a positive way. There\u2019s just not much to go on. Volynets winning in straight sets just doesn\u2019t offer enough of a return, so this is a game spread bet with the evenly-priced number being 5.5 games. You won\u2019t get much of a return on Volynets minus 4.5 games, so you have to go with 5.5 if you want to make a bet on this match and fade Burel.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That being said, <\/span>betting on Volynets -5.5 games is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/ the best odds: Volynets -5.5 games @2.00 @Bet365<\/b><\/p>\n

Tomljanovic \u2013 McNally: Time 5:00 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n

H2H: 0\u20132<\/b><\/p>\n

Ajla Tomljanovic faces Caty McNally. Tomljanovic is ranked World No. 90, McNally 56, but Tomljanovic isn\u2019t even playing like a top-100 player right now. She has had a very rough 2026 season, including on clay. She is 1-6 on clay this year and 1-7 overall in her last eight professional matches. McNally is a decent 3-2 in her last five matches.<\/span><\/p>\n

Best Bet to Make<\/b><\/p>\n

The complete collapse of Ajla Tomljanovic makes it very hard to bet on any angle which favors her in this match, and it makes it very easy to fade her. This is not a pro-McNally bet but an anti-Tomljanovic bet. How can this be anything other than a McNally straight-set win? Tomljanovic just isn\u2019t offering anything to suggest that she will perform well in this match. McNally straight-set win offers a very reasonable price, so take it.<\/span><\/p>\n

That being said, <\/span>betting on McNally winning 2:0 is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/ the best odds: McNally winning 2:0 @1.88 @1xBet<\/b><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The WTA French Open action begins. The 2026 edition of Roland Garros gets underway, as the second major tournament of the year and the one clay major arrives in Paris. This should be a very interesting women\u2019s tournament, since there is no clear or obvious favorite going in. Iga Swiatek had a solid Rome tournament […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5481,"featured_media":82574,"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],"tags":[43776,4130,13445,17399,3245,12484,394,8293,15,5922],"class_list":["post-105364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-bets","category-french-open","tag-2026-wta-french-open","tag-ajla-tomljanovic","tag-anna-bondar","tag-best-bets","tag-caty-mcnally","tag-clara-burel","tag-elina-svitolina","tag-katie-volynets","tag-wta","tag-wta-french-open"],"modified_by":"Kane Webb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105364","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=105364"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105365,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105364\/revisions\/105365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}