After facing unranked Stebe in the opening round, the second round of the 2019 French Open has another seemingly easy opponent for Karen Khachanov, this time the 127th ranked domestic wild-card Gregoire Barrere. Their match will be played on Thursday, May 30, with the order of play yet to be released. Get Karen Khachanov v Gregoire Barrere live streaming options here.
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Karen Khachanov v Gregoire Barrere Head to Head
This is the first time Khachanov and Barrere will play against each other and it is not surprising. Barrere has never been better ranked than 117 and this will be only his 11th match in the main draw of an ATP level event.
On the other hand, two years younger Khachanov has already played 20+ ATP tournament matches before he turned 18 and now at the age of 23 has four ATP titles, including the Paris Masters title from last November.
The Russian might have played only 109 matches on clay in his professional career but has won 64 of them and was in the round of 16 here at Roland Garros for the two previous seasons, while Barrere got the wild card for the main draw for the third time this year and got his first win (3-1 against Ebden who is awful on clay and has a 17-33 career record on it).
Khachanov Looking For Another Easy Win
Karen Khachanov has won the opening round match against Stebe pretty comfortably, 6-1, 6-1, 6-4 was the final score and the German failed to convert any of the five break points he had during the match.
This easy win should boost Khachanov’s confidence ahead of another much worse ranked and less skilled opponent and help him gain traction on his way to another round of 16, where he’ll probably face del Potro.
If Khachanov continues to play well and gets into the quarterfinals he could improve his current and career-high rankings of 11th and enter the top 10 for the first time ever, especially with Anderson and Isner not playing here this year (both losing 180 ranking points for the round of 16 appearances in 2018).
Barrere Playing With House Money
After getting a great draw in the first round, where Barrere faced a really bad clay courter Matthew Ebden and defeated him without any problems 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 and 6-1, the local player has nothing to lose in this one and is playing with house money.
He was born in Charenton-le-Pont, a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris which is located only 6.2 km from the centre of Paris. This means that he will have great home crowd support in this one and he will try to use this in his advantage.
Gregoire didn’t have too much success in his previous two appearances at the French Open, losing to Goffin and Albot in 2016 and 2018, when he also got a wild card for the main draw.
Karen Khachanov v Gregoire Barrere Predictions & Tips
I think that Khachanov is just too good for Barrere, who might win a set in a best case scenario but not do much more against the Russian who is more experienced on the Grand Slam level, despite being two years younger.
Tip: Karen Khachanov -6.5 games Asian handicap: 17/20 (888Sport)
The Karen Khachanov v Gregoire Barrere match can be watched live with Unibet here on May 30, 2019. Also get the latest tennis tips and predictions here.
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