Steve’s ATP French Open Preview: Musetti vs Goffin

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Another year, another up-and-coming Italian player for David Goffin to face in the first round at Roland Garros.

Whilst things didn’t end overly well for Goffin here when dominated by Jannik Sinner in 2020, these condtions, and this opponent, are a little more favourable for the Belgian.

Whilst Musetti is certainly starting to put together a decent list of winners in the best-of-3 winner, I still feel he is a touch short in the market here in the best-of-5 set format. I have written a couple of times about Musetti recently, remarking on his ability to tune in and out of matches at times. With his mental focus one of the bigger question marks in his game, it is the type of issue that can be magnified over the longer format, especially against a player with the style of Goffin.

The more I watch Musetti on clay, the more I feel like he enjoys a reasonable amount of pace on the ball against players who aren’t as strong at covering the court. The dropshot game of Musetti is prevalent on the clay, and it becomes more difficult to utilise that part of the game when his opponent covers the court so well (see his match versus Nishioka the other week).

This is the first time we will see Musetti over the course of best of 5 sets, and there are too many unknowns to have him as a favourite for mine. I will be backing Goffin here for 1.5 units.

Suggested Bet

1.5 units Goffin to defeat Musetti at $2.30 at Unibet

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