French Open 2020: Monday Schedule and Predictions for Roland Garros Bracket

Monday's schedule of play inside Court Philippe Chatrier is full of Grand Slam champions. 

Petra Kvitova, Marin Cilic, Dominic Thiem, Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal will play on the marquee court at Roland Garros. 

Kvitova opens play on Chatrier before Cilic and Thiem collide in the second of two men's singles first-round matches that feature previous major champions. Stanislas Wawrinka beat Andy Murray Sunday in the other. 

Nadal's quest for his 13th career French Open title finishes the Monday slate in Paris. Top seed Novak Djokovic will wait until Tuesday to open his tournament.

The full order of play for Monday at Roland Garros can be found here. 

Predictions

Petra Kvitova, Serena Williams Follow Trend of Easy 1st-Round Wins

Kvitova and Williams will try to extend the run of dominance that a majority of the seeded players had Sunday. 

Simona Halep, Maria Sakkari, Elise Mertens and Victoria Azarenka were among the players to advance through straight-set victories. 

Kvitova will play Oceane Dodin for the first time in her career at a major in which she has not reached the final eight since 2012. The seventh seed last played at the U.S. Open, where she won each of her first three matches in two sets. 

Four of the six sets played in her three victories were won by 6-2 or 6-3, so Kvitova should have an easy time breaking Dodin in the first match on Chatrier.

For the second straight Grand Slam, Williams will face Kristie Ahn in the opening round. A few weeks ago at the U.S. Open, the 23-time major singles champion defeated her fellow American 7-5, 6-3.

Williams is in search of her first French Open final appearance since 2016 and could face a treacherous road to get there. 

A quick win over Ahn is needed with a potential U.S. Open rematch with Tsvetana Pironkova ahead in the second round and Azarenka looming in the fourth.

Rafael Nadal Asserts Dominance in Opener

Picking Nadal to win his opener at Roland Garros feels like the easiest prediction you could make. 

The bolder projection is to pick how dominant the Spanish southpaw will be in his first-round meeting with Egor Gerasimov. Nadal has outscored his first-round opponents 37-19 in the last two years. Both of those victories kick-started a run to the final in which he beat Dominic Thiem.

The No. 2 seed could be on the right side of a more lopsided score against the 27-year-old Gerasimov, who has struggled to reach the main draw at every Grand Slam.

Nadal's current game spread is -11.5, per DraftKings Sportsbook, and he showed in 2019 that he is capable of covering that number, even late in the tournament. 

In the quarterfinals, the Spaniard outclassed Kei Nishikori by 13 games. In the first round, he dominated Yannick Hanfmann by 12.

Given Nadal's strong play on the Paris clay, it is worth looking at him to cover since he is an immense -10000 favorite (bet $10,000 to win $100) on the money line.

Follow Joe on Twitter, @JTansey90.

Statistics obtained from RolandGarros.com.