{"id":105453,"date":"2026-05-24T22:28:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T02:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=105453"},"modified":"2026-05-24T22:28:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T02:28:34","slug":"wta-french-open-joint-potapova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/05\/24\/wta-french-open-joint-potapova\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA French Open First Round Best Bets Including Maya Joint vs Anastasia Potapova"},"content":{"rendered":"

The WTA French Open action continues on Monday. The 2026 edition of Roland Garros goes into the second day of first-round competition. The first round started on Sunday and will end on Tuesday, as the field goes from 128 down to 64. There are so many matches and stories to keep track of. Which top seeds are in danger? Which floaters in the draw will begin to pick up momentum, which could flow into the rest of the tournament? These and other interesting questions will soon be answered. LWOS has our best bets for three matches on Monday. Post your best bets and thoughts in the comments.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Joint \u2013 Potapova: Time 5:00 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n

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

Maya Joint faces Anastasia Potapova. Joint did not play for several weeks earlier this season before coming back to the tour in Rome. She lost her only match there. She then played Paris and Strasbourg and lost her only match at those two tournaments, so she is clearly out of form and trying to play her way back into a groove. It\u2019s an uphill battle right now. Potapova is not fighting an uphill battle. She has soared up the rankings over the past month with a Linz final, a Madrid semifinal, and a Rome Round of 16 result. She has won 14 clay matches this year and is one of the rising players on tour.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Potapova\u2019s great form is known by everyone who follows and bets on tennis right now. Joint is obviously not in good form, so a Potapova straight-set win should occur. However, you won\u2019t get that much of a return for that bet, so you need to go to the game spread. 5.5 games seems like a very realistic cover for Potapova. Joint is playing so poorly that Potapova not winning each set 6-3 or larger would seem like a mild surprise. Potapova should definitely be able to handle a medium-sized spread.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Value bet\/ the best odds: Potapova -5.5 games @1.67 @Bet365<\/b><\/p>\n

Urhobo \u2013 Boulter: Time 9:00 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n

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

Ukasha Urhobo takes on Katie Boulter. This is another first-round French Open match in which the lower-ranked player is playing better tennis than her higher-ranked opponent. Urhobo is World No. 184 but is 8-2 in her last 10 matches. Boulter is World No. 69 but is 2-4 in her last six matches. The obvious and necessary detail to add is that Urhobo has been playing lower-level challenger events while Boulter plays much tougher competition on the main tour. Urhobo has 23 clay match wins this year, whereas Boulter has only four. The level of competition is the big question, though. Has Urhobo\u2019s work in smaller tournaments prepared her for a player who is 115 spots higher than she is in the rankings? We are about to find out.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

The quality of Urhobo\u2019s opponents is nowhere near the caliber of what Boulter has faced. Boulter has played Jessica Pegula, Taylor Townsend, and Rouen finalist Veronika Podrez in recent weeks. It\u2019s hard to trust that Urhobo is ready for this test. We\u2019re going to go with Boulter in straight sets, since the Boulter moneyline won\u2019t offer enough of a price to justify that particular bet.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Value bet\/ the best odds: Boulter winning 2:0 @1.95 @1xBet<\/b><\/p>\n

Marcinko \u2013 Lys: Time 6:30 EST<\/b><\/h4>\n

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

Petra Marcinko faces Eva Lys. Marcinko is ranked World No. 76, Lys 81, so purely based on rankings, this looks like an even matchup. Marcinko, however, is on a five-match winning streak, whereas Lys is 1-4 in her last five matches. Marcinko is also 9-4 in 13 clay matches this year, whereas Lys is 2-5 in seven clay matches in 2026. The arrow is pointing to Marcinko, but she is priced as a very slight favorite, not a heavy one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

The argument for Lys in this match is that she has played Naomi Osaka and Elina Svitolina in recent weeks, generally facing tougher competition than Marcinko has. It\u2019s part of why Marcinko isn\u2019t a larger favorite. However, Lys lost to Talia Gibson in her most recent match before the French Open. That\u2019s the kind of loss that makes it hard to ultimately trust Lys to get the job done. We\u2019re going to trust Marcinko\u2019s superior clay results and her recent five-match winning streak.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Value bet\/ the best odds: Marcinko winning @1.87 @Pinnacle<\/b><\/p>\n

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

The WTA French Open action continues on Monday. The 2026 edition of Roland Garros goes into the second day of first-round competition. The first round started on Sunday and will end on Tuesday, as the field goes from 128 down to 64. There are so many matches and stories to keep track of. Which top […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5481,"featured_media":56389,"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":[43776,1526,17399,17899,1225,42392,17633,43795,15,5922],"class_list":["post-105453","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-anastasia-potapova","tag-best-bets","tag-eva-lys","tag-katie-boulter","tag-maya-joint","tag-petra-marcinko","tag-ukasha-urhobo","tag-wta","tag-wta-french-open"],"modified_by":"Kane Webb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105453","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=105453"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105455,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105453\/revisions\/105455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}