Sock – Coric

American Jack Sock and the Croat teenager Borna Coric will square off in the Roland Garros third round.

Sock looked sharp all season long, including on clay, where he won the title at Houston and played pretty good in Europe. However, he`s playing at an even better level this week, surely the best tennis he ever played on this surface. The faster courts in Roland Garros suit the American just fine and he defeated Carreno Busta in 4 sets after previously upseting Dimitrov in the 1st round – a great 3 set blowout, even though Dimi was far from his best.

Coric pulled off a really surprising win as far as I`m concerned against Robredo. I could not see the young Croatian defeating a veteran like Tommy at his own game, but it seemed Coric loved to play against a guy with not so much power and benefited from a mediocre performance by Robredo to grab it in 5 sets. Coric has been in pretty good form on clay all season but nothing special and often lacked power and composure (or a big weapon) to challenge the better player. His inconsistency was obvious in the first round, when, despite winning in 4, suffered a 6-0 bagel by Querrey in the 3rd set.

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The two players never met before on tour. Coric has a game better suited for clay than Sock, but the defensive baseliner will have to cope with the American’s aggression and power shots – it will mostly be defense (Coric) against offense (Sock).

I expect Sock to win this, I reckon he`s just too powerful for the slim, young Coric and he should be able to dominate with his serve and forehand. Coric is just too underdeveloped right now to resist these big hitters as long as they are not making errors – and Sock is not making too many right now. However, the odds seem to be a little low for Jack. After all, the surface does favor Coric and the teenager is playing really good tennis himself. Coric should be able to snatch at least a set and the under / over line set at 39 games is low enough to be covered in 4 sets, considering Sock’s tendency for tiebreaks – he played three of them against a clay courter like Carreno Busta, one against Dimitrov.

All in all, my tip on this Roland Garros 3rd round clash is over 39,5 games to be played. Prediction: Jack Sock – Borna Coric 7-6 3-6 6-4 7-6.

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Pick: over 39,5
Odds: 1.90 @ Unibet
Stake: 7
Possible profit: 6.3
Event date: 30 May