{"id":105368,"date":"2026-05-23T23:35:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T03:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=105368"},"modified":"2026-05-23T23:35:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T03:35:34","slug":"wta-french-open-jones-swiatek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/05\/23\/wta-french-open-jones-swiatek\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA French Open First Round Best Bets Including Emerson Jones vs Iga Swiatek"},"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

Jones \u2013 Swiatek: Time 5:00 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n

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

Iga Swiatek begins her 2026 French Open against Emerson Jones, ranked No. 136. Jones made the second round of Miami but has since played challenger-level events. It is a career moment for Jones, who gets to face the most dominant women\u2019s clay champion of this decade. It will be interesting to see how fluidly Swiatek can make her way through the first round. She has struggled for most of the season but began to pick up some good form in Rome. She beat Naomi Osaka and Jessica Pegula in consecutive matches, both in blowouts. She then lost to Elina Sviotlina, however, which will make some people question how ready she is to win back the French Open championship.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Swiatek is a massive favorite here, so a straight-set win carries no value. This is a game spread play. Minus 8.5 games offers a great price, but that carries almost zero margin for error. Minus 7.5 games doesn\u2019t have the same attractive price, but it\u2019s a lot more likely to win. Go with that play to start the French Open this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

That being said, <\/span>betting on Swiatek -7.5 games is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/ the best odds: Swiatek -7.5 games @1.62 @Bet365<\/b><\/p>\n

Valentova \u2013 Linette: Time 5:00 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n

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

Tereza Valentova faces Magda Linette. Valentova is ranked World No. 43, Linette 57, but Valentova has been in better form. Valentova reached the final of the Saint-Malo WTA 125 event. Linette has played just three matches since April 10, losing two of them. She lost early in both Madrid and Rome and did not choose to play either Strasbourg or Rabat to gain more matches. Valentova has played a much more regular schedule and will enter this match with more tennis played in recent weeks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

The lack of match play should prevent Linette from ultimately winning this match, but is Valentova good enough to dominate Linette? Valentova did make a 125 final, but that\u2019s not the same as a 250 or 500 final. It\u2019s not as though Valentova has beaten elite competition. Valentova should win this match, which means you should fold Valentova moneyline into a parlay. However, in terms of a single bet, Linette winning one set carries a great price and seems like a realistic outcome. That\u2019s our play here.<\/span><\/p>\n

That being said, <\/span>betting on Linette +1.5 sets is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/ the best odds: Linette +1.5 sets @2.10 @Coral<\/b><\/p>\n

Ostapenko \u2013 Seidel: Time 5:00 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n

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

Former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko faces Ella Seidel. Ostapenko is always inconsistent, so betting on her matches always comes with a word of caution. However, she just did make the quarterfinals in Rome, so she is coming into Paris in relatively good form and might have a chance to do something this year. Ella Seidel went to Rabat to try to get some more match play in before the French Open began, but she lost her first match there. She previously played some challenger matches and also lost in the Rome qualifying rounds.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

The inconsistency of Ostapenko is always a fear for tennis bettors, but Ella Seidel is not in good form and does not appear ready to make Ostapenko struggle in this match. Ostapenko winning in straight sets doesn\u2019t always happen, but it should happen here. The price is not amazing but certainly reasonable. Why make a more complicated game spread bet when you can simply go for the straight-set win?<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Value bet\/ the best odds: Ostapenko winning 2:0 @1.70 @1xBet<\/b><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey-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":79496,"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":[43776,17399,19039,42712,4315,473,3541,43011,15,5922],"class_list":["post-105368","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-ella-seidel","tag-emerson-jones","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-jelena-ostapenko","tag-magda-linette","tag-tereza-valentova","tag-wta","tag-wta-french-open"],"modified_by":"Kane Webb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105368","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=105368"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105369,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105368\/revisions\/105369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}