Daily Tennis Tips – Friday 6th June

See below for our expert daily tennis tips and best bets around the courts for Friday June 6, 2025!

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz squares off against first-time grand slam final hopeful Lorenzo Musetti in the French Open semis.  

Alcaraz is 6-1 against Musetti, winning all five clashes since the Italian’s victory in the 2022 Hamburg Open final.

Alcaraz came from a set down to win the recent Monte-Carlo Masters final against Musetti (3-6 6-0 6-1) and accounted for him in the semis of the subsequent Rome Masters (6-3 7-6), which he went on to win by beating Jannik Sinner in the final.

The watershed clay swing lifted Musetti to No.7 in the world – and he’s carried that form into Roland Garros. The 23-year-old eliminated Yannick Hanfmann and Daniel Elahi Galan in straight sets, then accounted for Mariano Navone, 10th seed Holger Rune and 15th seed Frances Tiafoe in four.

It’s the first time Musetti has been past the fourth round at the French Open but he was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon last year, losing to Novak Djokovic.

Alcaraz kicked off his title defence with a straight-sets win over Giulio Zeppieri, then defeated Fabian Marozsan, Damir Dzumhur and 13th seed Ben Shelton in four-setters. The Spanish whiz went up a gear in the quarters to obliterate in-form 12th seed Tommy Paul 6-0 6-1 6-4.

The world No.2 is the sport’s premier clay-courter and has won 21 of 22 matches on this swing. Weaknesses are hard to find in Alcaraz’s kitbag. Musetti is a superbly well-rounded player in the form of his life, but his one-handed backhand will be a target for the tournament favourite.

An absolute barnburner awaits in the other semifinal as world No.1 Jannik Sinner and arguably the greatest player of all time, sixth seed Novak Djokovic, compete for a berth in the French Open decider.

The head-to-head is locked four-all, with Sinner winning their last three clashes – including in the 2024 Australian Open semis and the Shanghai Masters final. Their only previous encounter on clay saw Djokovic prevail at the 2021 Monte-Carlo Masters.

US and Australian Open champ Sinner, who lost his maiden Roland Garros semi to Carlos Alcaraz last year, returned from a three-month ban to reach the Rome Masters final (another loss to Alcaraz).

The Italian has been ruthless in Paris so far, crushing Arthur Rinderknech, Richard Gasquet, Jiri Lehecka, 17th seed Andrey Rublev and quarter-final bolter Alexander Bublik. Since facing reasonable resistance from Rinderknech, Sinner hasn’t lost more than eight games in any match.

But the 38-year-old Djokovic is a different calibre of opponent. The three-time French Open winner (most recently in 2023) and Olympic champion at this venue has reached his 51st grand slam semi-final.

Djokovic hammered Mackenzie McDonald, Corentin Moutet, Filip Misolic and Cameron Norrie in straight sets, then proved too good for third seed and 2024 finalist Alexander Zverev in the quarters, winning 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-4.

Djokovic is an incredible 37-13 in grand slam semi-finals – winning six of his last seven at the French Open – while Sinner is 3-2. Yet it’s the younger competitor who goes in as a hot $1.24 favourite.

Outstanding as Sinner has been in recent weeks, Djokovic’s blistering performance against Zverev holds him in good stead to drag the top seed out into deep waters in this mouth-watering semi.