{"id":105379,"date":"2026-05-23T23:53:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T03:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=105379"},"modified":"2026-05-23T23:53:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T03:53:55","slug":"wta-french-open-kenin-stearns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/05\/23\/wta-french-open-kenin-stearns\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA French Open First Round Best Bets Including Sofia Kenin vs Peyton Stearns"},"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

Kenin \u2013 Stearns: Time 8:30 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n

H2H: 0-1<\/b><\/p>\n

Sofia Kenin faces Peyton Stearns. Kenin is ranked World No. 88, Stearns No. 92. Kenin is a former major champion and a former French Open finalist, but she has fallen off the map since her great runs at big tournaments several years ago. It is hard to understand how and why she regressed so completely. She will try to reverse course here against Stearns, who is also going through a tough period in her career. Both players are looking for positive momentum. They are both 2-4 in their last six matches.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Stearns will probably win this match. Kenin has produced some very puzzling performances in recent weeks, so it\u2019s not as though Kenin is ready to suddenly turn things around. However, Stearns has been struggling. She got wiped out by Daria Kasatkina in Strasbourg. Kasatkina is a talented athlete and a former top-10 player, but she is not in peak form. Yet, she still had no problem with Stearns, who is trying to get out of a slump. You could go for an over 2.5 sets bet, but the safer play is to bet that Stearns won\u2019t win this in straight sets.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Value bet\/ the best odds: Kenin +1.5 sets @1.70 @10Bet<\/b><\/p>\n

Tauson \u2013 Snigur: Time 10:30 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n

H2H: 1\u20130<\/b><\/p>\n

Clara Tauson faces Daria Snigur. The whole focus here is on Tauson, who has been dealing with repeated back problems in 2026. She has had to withdraw from multiple tournaments. She has completed only one tour match since March 20, and that was this past week in Strasbourg, where she lost to Jaqueline Cristian. It is really hard to know if that one match against Cristian is enough to give Tauson a sense of comfort and confidence on court. Tauson is very low on match play right now, and that\u2019s the thing bettors will be thinking about when they look at this match.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

When we have offered best bets on Tauson in recent weeks, we have been very clear: It\u2019s all about whether Tauson is healthy or not. If you are not sure Tauson is fit to play, you either should bet against her or shouldn\u2019t bet at all. If you do bet on a Tauson match right now, you shouldn\u2019t make it a large wager, either. Look for other matches in which to bet big. All in all, the safest bet we can think of here is Snigur to win a set. It\u2019s hard to expect Tauson to win in straight sets, even though she is ranked much higher than Snigur. This is not a 100-percent-fit version of Tauson unless or until she proves she is actually fine.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Value bet\/ the best odds: Snigur +1.5 sets @1.63 @Unibet<\/b><\/p>\n

Tagger \u2013 Wang: Time 5:00 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n

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

Lilli Tagger faces Xinyu Wang. Tagger is ranked World No. 91, Wang 32, but Tagger is priced as the favorite because Wang is in a real slump. Wang is 1-5 in her last six matches and is not offering much of any reason for optimism. Tagger, though, is just 2-4 in her last six matches, so you have to wonder why Tagger is being priced as a clear favorite, though not a huge one. We can agree that the world rankings are not reflective of how balanced this match is.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

The price for Wang +1.5 sets is not great (1.53). The price for Tagger moneyline (which you could combine with Wang +1.5 sets) is not that special (1.67). The evenly-priced game spread is 2.5 games (1.88 both ways). If you did like Tagger moneyline, you could go in that direction. However, Tagger is just 2-4 in her last six matches, so that seems like a big risk. The value is in predicting a three-set match. It makes sense: Two players who are not in form have decent odds of playing a match in which neither one can take control. Over 2.5 sets is the play, and that bet always carries a really attractive price.<\/span><\/p>\n

That being said, <\/span>betting on over 2.5 sets is a value bet for sure.<\/b><\/p>\n

Value bet\/ the best odds: over 2.5 sets @2.40 @Unibet<\/b><\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-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":60065,"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":[43776,17399,11133,7259,43404,18047,1900,15,5922,8154],"class_list":["post-105379","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-clara-tauson","tag-daria-snigur","tag-lilli-tagger","tag-peyton-stearns","tag-sofia-kenin","tag-wta","tag-wta-french-open","tag-xinyu-wang"],"modified_by":"Kane Webb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105379","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=105379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105380,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105379\/revisions\/105380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}