World No. 158 Gilles Simon of France meets world No. 92 Steve Johnson of the USA in the second round of the 2022 French Open on Thursday, May 26. Get live streaming options of this Gilles Simon vs Steve Johnson match with preview, head to head and tips here.
Would you like to watch the French Open 2022 in live stream online?
*Live Streaming Terms and Conditions:
You can follow live sports on your mobile, tablet or desktop including football, tennis and basketball. All you need is a funded account or that you have placed a bet in the last 24 hours to qualify.
Gilles Simon vs. Steve Johnson head to head
The pair previously played each other on a hard court in Tokyo eight years ago, with Simon winning in straight sets.
also read:
Simon wows the French crowd with an exciting victory
Like his compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Roland Garros will be Simon’s swan song to competitive tennis. Unlike Tsonga, however, Simon was determined to delay his departure at his home Grand Slam, and the wildcard delighted the local crowd with a fighting display against No. 16 seed Pablo Carreno-Busta of Spain.
Simon won the first set courtesy of the odd break in three, and then after the pair traded breaks twice in the set, another break allowed him to extend his lead.
Carreno-Busta launched a comeback in the third set, which he clinched when Simon dropped serve to stay in the try.
And then two consecutive breaks allowed him to level the match.
At that point it looked like the fairy tale was over and Simon’s 37-year-old legs wouldn’t have the strength to keep up with the Spaniard down the stretch.
Then, when he broke early in the fifth set, the omens didn’t look good for Simon. However, he found the inner determination to hit back and then, when Carreno-Busta served to stay in the match, forced a match point which he happily grabbed.
The couple had been in court for almost four hours.
Johnson comes from behind to hit Czech
Johnson had decided to miss the entire European clay-court season ahead of Paris, instead staying in the United States, where he reached the final of a Challenger event last month.
In his first round match against the Czech Jiri Vesely, which was largely characterized by the serve, he quickly found his way around, at least in the first three sets.
It was Vesely who salvaged the only break points of the first set, but after doing so, he clinched that one via a tiebreak. The shoe was on the other foot in the second set – the American saved break points but won the tiebreak.
A break on serve to love was enough for Johnson to win the third set.
And by that point, tail held high after two breaks of serve, he was in full control of the fourth set. Served to stay in the match, Vesely saved two match points but was powerless to prevent Johnson from serving in the next game.
Simon v Johnson prediction and tip
Simon has strong crowd support again but the match with Carreno-Busta must have taken a lot out of him and it could be left to Johnson to draw the curtain on his illustrious career.
The French Open 2022 will be held from May 22nd to June 5th. You can watch and bet on these games here. Get your latest premium tennis predictions here.
