Julia Grabher faced Amanda Anisimova in the second round of the WTA French Open on Thursday, a meeting that pitched Grabher’s recent climb against Anisimova’s comeback in Paris heat.
The tournament stayed very hot in Paris, and the women’s draw produced shocks: Elena Rybakina and Jessica Pegula both lost earlier in the event, underscoring how quickly momentum can shift on clay this week.
Grabher arrived in Paris on a modest run: she was 3-2 in her last five matches, had been playing lower-level events and even failed to get out of the qualifying rounds in Rome before arriving at Roland Garros. She opened her French Open campaign by beating Rebecca Sramkova in the first round to reach Thursday’s showdown.
Anisimova’s path to the second round looked different. She missed almost the entire clay season with injuries and returned to the court in Paris after two months away, winning her first-round match in straight sets. The contrast — a player grinding through lower tiers versus one trying to scale back after a layoff — gave the match a clear narrative.
The meeting also drew attention from bettors. An article covering the match framed Anisimova to win 2:0 as a value bet, listing that outcome at 1.60 with Coral. That market view reflected both Anisimova’s first-round straight-sets return and the market’s assessment of her level despite the missed clay swing.
Elsewhere in the draw, Maja Chwalinska prepared to face Elise Mertens after beating Qinwen Zheng in the first round. Chwalinska had won four straight matches and eight of her last 10, and an article listed Chwalinska +1.5 sets at 1.70 with Interwetten — another example of bettors reacting to short-term form rather than reputation.
The tension in Grabher’s match was plain: she arrives with the confidence of a first-round win and recent match play on lower surfaces, but she also brings a resume that includes a failed Rome qualifying bid. Anisimova, by contrast, brought the risk of a recent injury layoff and the assurance of a straight-sets victory on her return. In the swelter of Paris, fitness and timing mattered as much as shotmaking.
Given those facts, markets leaned toward Anisimova despite her interrupted clay season, but Grabher’s steady run and her win over Sramkova meant this was not a foregone conclusion. The likely decider was how each player handled the heat and the quick turnaround between matches; in a tournament already producing upsets, small margins would decide who advanced and who went home.
