Will Rune beat the risk-taking Swiss?

With Roger Federer (2009) and Stan Wawrinka (2015), there have already been two overall winners from Switzerland in the men’s singles of the French Open. However, at the current 126th staging of the only Grand Slam tournament that takes place on clay courts, only one Swiss player, Henri Laaksonen, has made it into the round of the best 64 players. The 30-year-old defeated clay court expert Pedro Martínez 3:1 to do so.

Now the last Swiss in the field clashes with the only Dane competing in the men’s singles at the French Open. Holger Rune already caused a surprise in the first round when he dispatched the favored Denis Shapovalov in three sets. Consequently, in the run-up to the second round between Holger Rune and Henri Laaksonen, the odds are swinging in favor of the Dane

It should be noted, however, that the Danish shooting star is still very inexperienced, while Henri Laaksonen already had a strong run at Roland Garros a year ago and reached the third round. We therefore trust the Swiss to ensure a close match.

The biggest value for Holger Rune against Henri Laaksonen is to bet on the Swiss player with an Asian handicap of +8.5 games.

Holger Rune – statistics & current form

Current ranking in the world: 40
Position in the seedings: unseeded

The 19-year-old Dane Holger Rune started his professional career with a lot of advance praise. Two years ago, the man from Copenhagen finally defeated Toby Kodat in the final of the French Open boys’ singles and became only the fourth Dane to win a Grand Slam title.

Currently, the career of the 40th-ranked player in the world is also taking off on the ATP Tour. At the beginning of May, he won his first singles title in Munich just two days after his 19th birthday.

Scored on his first serve 76% of the time

With a correspondingly broad chest, Holger Rune started for the first time in his career in the men’s singles at the French Open, where he had to make do with the underdog role against Denis Shapovalov. In fact, he did not give the Canadian a chance in exactly two hours.

The Dane raced into a 2-0 lead with only four games to spare, before only the third set went to a tiebreak. Here, too, the 19-year-old kept his nerve and came to a convincing 3-0 victory against a seasoned top-20 player. The Copenhagen player surrendered only one service game, with his first serve winning 76% of the points.

Lost ten of 23 singles in 2022

The shooting star is now accordingly favored going into the second round, where the Dane has excellent chances of reaching the third round against his opponent from Switzerland. Looking at the tournament tree, even a place in the round of 16 is absolutely realistic for his French Open debut.

Before that, however, Holger Rune’s bet on his second singles win at a Grand Slam tournament against Henri Laaksonen must come true. That this is not a foregone conclusion is proven by the fact that among his ten defeats in 2022 are several lost matches against comparatively small opponents far away from the top 100 of the ATP world rankings.

Henri Laaksonen – statistics & current form

Current ranking in the world: 96
Position in the seedings: unseeded

Although 30-year-old Swiss Henri Laaksonen has been a professional tennis player since 2009. However, the Finnish-born player did not break into the top 100 for the first time until 2021.

His strong performances at the French Open 2021 and the US Open 2021 were partly responsible for this. In both tournaments, the athlete, who once reached the semifinals in the boys’ singles at the French Open in 2009, reached the third round. Moreover, in Roland Garros, where even more was possible, the remarkable run ended unhappily due to an adductor injury.

66 Winner and eight aces against Pedro Martínez

At present, Laaksonen, who initially failed in the first round at the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, can continue his strong performance at Roland Garros. Although the Swiss first lost the first set against clay court expert Pedro Martínez, he then came to a 3:1 comeback victory.

The 30-year-old’s risky style of play was conspicuous, but he was ultimately rewarded for it. The 58 unforced errors were offset not only by 66 winners, but also by eight aces – a really good figure for a clay court.

14 of 19 break points fended off in the opening match

However, it is exactly this risky style of play that Laaksonen will need again against a Dane who is so strong especially on returns to take the points. In view of the fact that only 55% of his first serves were successful and he had to accept no less than 19 break points, 14 of which he defended, the potential for improvement is enormous.

It is clear that the Swiss will also win his matches in the second round. However, it seems unlikely that it will be enough to draw the match in the end.

Holger Rune – Henri Laaksonen Direct comparison / H2H balance

Head to head: 0:0

Both players face each other on the court for the first time. Thus, there is no ”head to head” data that could influence the forecast for Holger Rune vs Henri Laaksonen.

Holger Rune – Henri Laaksonen Tip

The shooting star from Denmark goes into the second round match as the clear favorite, but could have a tough time depending on the form of his opponent from Switzerland on the day. Henri Laaksonen already impressed in the first round with a very risky game, which not only resulted in many errors, but also in an excessive number of winners. Accordingly, many a rally promises to be spectacular in this duel as well.

The greatest value is offered by the bet on the Swiss with an Asian handicap of +8.5. Should his Danish opponent win the three-set match, the 30-year-old would need to win at least ten games spread over three sets, which seems very realistic.