Daily Tennis Tips – Friday 30th May

See below for our expert daily tennis tips and best bets around the courts for Friday May 30, 2025!

Sixteenth seed Amanada Anisimova and 22nd seed Clara Tauson meet for the first time in a huge French Open Round of 32 encounter.

Anisimova, who rocketed to prominence as a 17-year-old semi-finalist at Roland Garros in 2019 before enduring several bumpy seasons, has risen to a career-high ranking in 2025.

She won a maiden WTA 1000 title at the Qatar Open and has emerged from first-up failures in Madrid and Rome to demolish Nina Stojanovic (6-3 4-1 ret) and Viktorija Golubic (6-0 6-2) in the first two rounds this week.

Tauson, too, is enjoying a career-best season, winning the Auckland Open and reaching her first WTA 1000 final in Dubai.

The highlight of a modest clay swing to date was beating Emma Navarro in Rome, while she’s navigated tricky assignments against Magda Linette (6-4 4-6 6-1) and Aranxta Rus (7-6 7-5) in Paris. Tauson reached the fourth round at last year’s French Open – her best grand slam result.

Anisimova is a $1.60 favourite and has been the more impressive of the pair this week, but this is too close to call. Both are powerful baseline hitters and a seesawing battle looms.

Aussie 25th seed Alexei Popyrin confronts Portuguese giant-killer Nuno Borges in the third round of the French Open.

Popyrin snapped a six-year French Open drought with a 7-5 6-4 2-1 ret result against Yoshihito Nishioka in the first round before seeing clay specialist Alejandro Tabilo 7-5 6-3 6-4 on Wednesday to reach the third round at Roland Garros for the first time.

World No.41 Borges, meanwhile, had to come from two sets down to beat qualifier Kyrian Jacquet in five – then shocked seventh seed and two-time French Open runner-up Casper Ruud 2-6 6-4 6-1 6-0. Ruud suffered a mid-game injury, however, tempering the magnitude of the victory somewhat.

Borges reached the Round of 16 at the Australian and US Opens last year, while Popyrin’s sole fourth-round appearance at a grand slam was at the latter.

Popyrin is the slight favourite and the consistency he’s shown so far this week may be just enough to curtail Borges’ enigmatic qualities.

In-form 12th seed Tommy Paul will have his hands full in the third round against big-serving 24th seed Karen Khachanov, a two-time French Open quarter-finalist.

Paul is 2-0 against Khachanov, including a recent 6-3 3-6 6-2 win at the Madrid Masters.

The American subsequently reached the Rome Masters semis with wins over Alex de Minaur and Hubert Hurkacz, before grabbing a set in a loss to Jannik Sinner.

It hasn’t been all smooth sailing at Roland Garros – where Paul has never been past the Round of 32 – dropping the first set against Elmer Moller and having to fight from two sets down to beat Marton Fucsovics 4-6 2-6 6-3 7-5 6-4.

Khachanov’s clay swing has been rather unremarkable with his wins coming against low-ranked opposition. He easily accounted for Aleksandar Vukic 6-4 6-4 6-4 in the first round, before outlasting Sebastian Ofner in a 7-5 3-6 7-5 6-4 6-2 rollercoaster.

The Russian is perhaps surprisingly a $1.72 favourite heading into this clash. Despite Khachanov’s superior French Open record, Paul has had by far the better lead-up and shapes as the better bet with both players coming off shaky second-round victories.

Grand slam winners Elena Rybakina and Jelena Ostapenko square off in a third-round blockbuster at Roland Garros.

Rybakina has rallied to a 3-2 record against Ostapenko, winning their last three encounters – all during 2023, at the Australian Open, Rome Masters and Cincinnati Masters.

Seeded 12th, 2022 Wimbledon champ and former top-five staple Rybakina has endured a tough season. But she hit a high point by winning the Internationaux de Strasbourg last week.

After a patchy 6-1 4-6 6-4 win over Julia Riera in the French Open’s first round, she was in full control against Iva Jovic, prevailing 6-3 6-3.

Ostapenko, the 21st seed, won this tournament in 2017 but hasn’t been past the third round here since. She won the Stuttgart Open last month and has recorded similar three-set wins over Polina Kudermetova (5-7 6-0 6-2) and Caroline Dolehide (5-7 6-3 6-3) in Paris this week.

Rybakina is a warm $1.42 favourite and was a quarter-finalist here in 2021 and ’24. The mercurial Ostapenko is still capable of overwhelming the world’s best on her day, though, and is a huge chance here.