The French Open is one of the most hotly anticipated tennis events of the year. Arguably the most intriguing because of its clay courts and regular upsets, the Paris tournament always draws in the punters. Here, you’ll learn all about the event and your many French Open betting options.

French Open in a Nutshell

The French Open joined the Grand Slam set of major tournaments in 1925. The Parisian event is the youngest of the bunch, but that hasn’t stopped the main courts from selling out every year. Usually beginning at the end of May or the start of June, the French Open is the second Grand Slam on the calendar and remains the world’s premier clay-court tennis tournament. Winners in the men’s and women’s singles and doubles tournaments receive a massive 2,000 ranking points, with singles champions earning €2.3 million.

How to Prepare Your French Open Tennis Bets

Before you start your French Open betting, it’s good to know the key characteristics of the tournament. The surface is, naturally, the big factor, but other elements should be considered before you take any French Open odds.

Surface Particularities

Famously, this Grand Slam is played on a clay surface. The composition begins with drain rock at the base level, building up through crushed gravel, coal residue, crushed white limestone, and finished with red brick dust. The unique surface makes the ball slower and bounce higher which mitigates advantages gained by players with a particularly fast serve. Instead, stamina takes precedence. Players who use good groundstrokes and play on the baseline tend to have more success, especially when coupled with a huge engine and a good mind for strategy.

Player Form

Player form isn’t always the most telling of stats in tennis. It’s not uncommon to find a player with mixed form be favourite for a tournament. . Still, you usually want to see at least one outing on a clay court with some wins before you look at them in the French Open betting.

Head-to-Head Records

Some players just have a knack for beating others. However, for the French Open, it’s important to delve into how the head-to-head record plays out on clay specifically. As an example, in the Nadal versus Djokovic rivalry, Nadal led 8-2 at the French Open but trailed 2-1 and 2-0 at Wimbledon and the Australian Open, respectively.

Rankings

Whether you’re betting on the WTA or ATP line of the French Open odds, the rankings can help you to identify overall tour leaders and, perhaps, favourites in close games.

Early Upsets

The French Open betting odds may feature rankings-leading players who have already won other Grand Slams, but that doesn’t always bode well on the clay. In fact, Venus Williams, Boris Becker, John McEnroe, Andy Murray, and many other winners of multiple Grand Slams never raised the trophy in Paris. On top of this, in 2023, 14 women and eight men who entered among the total 64 seeds for the singles events bowed out in the first round.

French Open Betting Markets

Being a Grand Slam, you’ll find even more betting markets than the already stacked range of tennis odds available for all of the other events on the ATP, WTA, ITF, UTR, or Challenger calendars. Below are the most popular French Open betting markets.

Outright Winner, Finishing Position

The outright winner market is easily the most popular market in this French Open betting guide. Before the tournament, you can bet on any player who has qualified to finish as the winner. Once everything’s set, you could also bet on lower finishing positions for any competitors.

Match Winner

Just as you can across the world of sports betting, you can back the winner of any chosen match in the French Open betting odds. You can bet on one player to beat the other in an upcoming game.

Sets, Games, Points

Delve into the details of the match by betting under or over on a count of games. You can also back the total number of sets that will be played or points scored. In the French Open betting, you’ll also be able to bet under or over on the total number of games won by either player.

Correct Score

Anyone looking into how to bet on the French Open with long odds will either go for massive underdog players or a correct score bet. If you call the correct points score, also known as set betting, you’re betting on the sets line as opposed to the games or points scored.

French Open Structure and Rules

Whether you’re betting on the WTA competitors or ATP odds, you should know that the winner of the French Open will receive 2,000 points for their respective rankings. To qualify, players either need to rank among the top 104 who sign up, enter the qualifying matches and win three rounds of tennis, or be named as one of the eight wild cards.

Once at the French Open, the competition enters into a single-match knockout format. It begins with a top half and bottom half, both of which feature four sections of eight matches for the First Round. As the matches continue, the tournament flows through to the Fourth Round, Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals, and then the Final.

French Open Winners

These are the most recent winners of the tournament in Paris who made good on their outright French Open betting odds.

French Open Men’s Winners

• 2019: Rafael Nadal (Spanish)
• 2020: Rafael Nadal
• 2021: Novak Djokovic (Serbian)
• 2022: Rafael Nadal
• 2023: Novak Djokovic
• 2024: Carlos Alcaraz (Spanish)

French Open Women’s Winners

• 2019: Ashleigh Barty (Australian)
• 2020: Iga Świątek (Polish)
• 2021: Barbora Krejčíková (Czech)
• 2022: Iga Świątek
• 2023: Iga Świątek
• 2024: Iga Świątek

French Open Men’s Doubles Winners

• 2019: Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies (German/German)
• 2020: Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies
• 2021: Pierre-Hughes Herbert and Nicolas Mahut (French/French)
• 2022: Marcelo Arévalo and Jean-Julien Rojer (Salvadorian/Dutch)
• 2023: Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek (Croatian/American)
• 2024: Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic (Salvadorian/Croatian)

French Open Women’s Doubles Winners

• 2019: Tímea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic (Hungarian/French)
• 2020: Tímea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic
• 2021: Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková (Czech/Czech)
• 2022: Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic (French/French)
• 2023: Hsieh Su-wei and Wang Xinyu (Taiwanese/Chinese)
• 2024: Coco Gauff and Katerina Siniakova (American/Czech)

French Open History

While an organised French tournament had run prior, it wasn’t until 1925 that the French Open became a major championship under the International Lawn Tennis Federation. In the early years, there were other clay-court tournaments on the tour and even in France, but since 1978, the French Open has been the only major played on the clay.

How to Bet on the French Open at LeoVegas

To bet on the French Open at LeoVegas, you just need an account. After you press the sign up button, you can then click on sports and use either the tennis button or search bar to get to the French Open betting.

Not only will you find competitive French Open odds, but you’ll also gain access to our stats and facts slide. On each game, you can quickly find info about the match start, the surface, prize money, form, ranking, surface win rate, win probability, and more! For the complete tennis betting experience, LeoVegas has everything you need.