French Open 2016: Friday Schedule and Predictions for Roland Garros Bracket

Now it starts heating up. 

With the third round of the French Open beginning on Friday, many of the better players in the game will square off at Roland Garros. Below, we'll break down a few of the more intriguing matches.

First, though, let's take a look at the schedule. Third-round play on each court will begin at 5 a.m. ET, with each corresponding match to follow. Here is the full list of matches:

Court	Matchup
Court	Matchup
Court	Matchup
Court	Matchup
Court	Matchup
Philippe-Chatrier Court	Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) vs. Garbine Muguruza (ESP) [4]
Philippe-Chatrier Court	Samantha Stosur (AUS) [21] vs. Lucie Safarova (CZE) [11]
Philippe-Chatrier Court	Nick Kyrgios (AUS) [17] vs. Richard Gasquet (FRA) [9]
Philippe-Chatrier Court	Jeremy Chardy (FRA) [30] vs. Stan Wawrinka (SUI) [3]
Suzanne-Lenglen Court	Simona Halep (ROU) [6] vs. Naomi Osaka (JPN)
Suzanne-Lenglen Court	Ivo Karlovic (CRO) [27] vs. Andy Murray (GBR) [2]
Suzanne-Lenglen Court	Barbora Strycova (CZE) [30] vs. Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) [2]
Suzanne-Lenglen Court	Gilles Simon (FRA) [16] vs. Viktor Troicki (SRB) [22]
Court 1	Milos Raonic (CAN) [8] vs. Andrej Martin (SVK)
Court 1	Kei Nishikori (JPN) [5] vs. Fernando Verdasco (ESP)
Court 1	Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL) vs. Sloane Stephens (USA) [19]
Court 2	Annika Beck (GER) vs. Irina-Camelia Begu (ROU) [25]
Court 2	Shelby Rogers (USA) vs. Petra Kvitova (CZE) [10]
Court 2	John Isner (USA) [15] vs. Teymuraz Gabashvili (RUS)
Court 3	Jack Sock (USA) [23] vs. Albert Ramos-Vinolas (ESP)
Court 3	Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) [13] vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) [24]

Barring any huge letdowns or injuries, the top contenders on each side of the draw—No. 2 seed Andy Murray and No. 3 seed Stan Wawrinka for the men; No. 2 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, No. 4 seed Garbine Muguruza and No. 6 seed Simona Halep—should advance.

Murray is 6-0 against his opponent, Ivo Karlovic. Wawrinka is 4-0 all-time against Jeremy Chardy. Radwanska is 4-0 against Barbora Strycova, and Muguruza has won her only match against Yanina Wickmayer. Halep has never faced the 18-year-old Naomi Osaka before, though the 2014 French Open runner-up should be the heavy favorite against Osaka, who is playing in her first French Open.

There are some compelling matchups on tap for Friday, however, with No. 17 seed Nick Kyrgios facing off against No. 9 Richard Gasquet in perhaps the day's most engaging battle.

Gasquet holds a 4-2 advantage in the series and won their only matchup on clay, though Kyrgios won the most recent matchup between the two in Marseille this year. Gasquet has also had his struggles at the French Open and has never advanced past the fourth round, though this is the first time Kyrgios has made it past the first round. 

Kyrgios has been the slightly better player this year, with a title under his belt and trips to the quarterfinals or better in five tournaments. Gasquet has a win of his own but has reached just one other quarterfinal, where he lost to Kyrgios.

Peter Bodo of ESPN.com explained why Kyrgios should have the edge in this match:

"

The most startling facet of Kyrgios' game has been the extent to which his serve has dominated his matches. He's made 67 percent of his first serves, winning 80 percent of those points and claimed an almost unheard of 71 percent of his second-serve points. His serve is a weapon that Kyrgios is exploiting to deadly effect well beyond hitting aces.

If Gasquet's two-match winner-to-unforced-error differential of plus-23 (65-42) looks good, consider Kyrgios'. It's a dazzling plus-46 (85-39). Both men like to pull the trigger on big placements. The difference is that Kyrgios has that serve to set up his huge groundstrokes, while Gasquet must work the day shift for his opportunities. It will be tough to beat Kyrgios at the shot-making game.

"

Look for Kyrgios to pull off the win.

On the women's side, No. 11 seed Lucie Safarova vs. No. 21 seed Samantha Stosur should be a fun match as well. On paper, Safarova is the safe pick. She's 11-3 all-time against Stosur and 3-1 against her on clay courts.

“It’s a tough matchup,” Stosur acknowledged, per Leo Schlink of the Herald Sun (h/t Fox Sports Australia). "She’s probably the person I’ve played the most in my career and she’s never easy to beat. I know that. I know I’ve had some really tough losses to her in the past. I’ve really got to go out there and play well. She’s not going to give it to me—I’m going to have to play very well to play through it.”

To Stosur's credit, she's 2-2 against Safarova since the start of the 2015 season.

At Roland Garros, Safarova was the runner-up at this tournament last year, while Stosur has three semifinal appearances and was the runner-up in 2010. Safarova is 9-6 on the season with a title, while Stosur is 20-11 this year but has yet to win a WTA title in 2016.

Stosur identified her serve as the key part of the match, per Schlink:

"

I know it’s going to be really important for me to not play lose service games. She’s very hard for me to break. We’ve played a lot of tiebreaks in the matches that we’ve played previously and had some long matches. I know the serve is going to be really important for me in this next match, to make really good choices and not give away free points. It’s really important to make good decisions—she hits the ball very well off both sides and the way she can serve, it’s difficult to read.

"

Stosur won't go down without a fight, but look for Safarova to earn another win in this rather one-sided rivalry.

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.