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

The second round of the 2020 French Open is set to conclude Thursday with a handful of matches spread throughout the day.

Top-seeded Novak Djokovic will take on Ricardas Berankis after a strong showing in his opening-round victory over Mikael Ymer. Stefanos Tsitsipas needed five sets to dispatch of Jaume Munar, so the No. 5 seed will hope to have an easier time with Pablo Cuevas.

Serena Williams' withdrawal has opened up the women's draw a bit. Second-seeded Karolina Pliskova can make a nice statement in her second-round encounter with Jelena Ostapenko.

Fans in the United States will have to wake up early to watch the play live since things will get underway starting at 5 a.m. ET.

Thursday Schedule

Court Philippe Chatrier

Jelena Ostapenko vs. Karolina Pliskova [2]

Ana Bogdan vs. Sofia Kenin [4]

Novak Djokovic [1] vs. Ricardas Berankis

Pablo Cuevas vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas [5]

Court Suzanne Lenglen

Denis Shapovalov [9] vs. Roberto Carballes Baena

Kristyna Pliskova vs. Garbine Muguruza [11]

Lloyd Harris vs. Matteo Berrettini [7]

Elena Rybakina [14] vs. Fiona Ferro

Court Simonne Mathieu

Petra Kvitova [7] vs. Jasmine Paolini

Andrej Martin vs. Grigor Dimitrov [18]

Alize Cornet vs. Shuai Zhang

Alejandro Davidovich Fokina vs. Andrey Rublev [13]

Full schedule is available through the French Open's official site.

Garbine Muguruza won the French Open in 2016 and received the No. 11 seed in the women's singles draw for this year's tournament. She has advanced to the fourth round in each of her last six trips to Roland Garros.

Muguruza also entered the French Open off the back of a semifinal run in the Italian Open, pushing Simona Halep to three sets in a defeat.

Perhaps her first-round scare with Tamara Zidansek was what she needed to find her focus in Paris. Muguruza was down 0-3 in the third set before rallying to win.

Kristyna Pliskova, on the other hand, cruised past Viktoria Kuzmova on Tuesday and required less than an hour to advance.

This could be a difficult match for Muguruza so early into the tournament.

Likewise, Karolina Pliskova may find herself in some danger.

The 28-year-old was a French Open semifinalist in 2017, but her seven other appearances in the main draw ended in the third round or earlier. Pliskova is only 3-2 against Ostapenko as well, with the latter prevailing in their most recent meeting in the 2019 China Open.

Let's go out on a limb and predict the big upset.

Don't expect to see anything similar on the men's side.

Djokovic has been the only person to get in his own way in 2020. Barring a repeat of his U.S. Open meltdown, anything short of a quarterfinal run would be a total shock. His default against Pablo Carreno Busta remains his lone defeat this year.

Cuevas might be a nice change of pace for Tsitsipas after flirting with disaster. The two have crossed paths three times on the ATP Tour, with Tsitsipas winning all three in straight sets.

Cuevas pushed him hard in the Hamburg European Open, though—an outcome that was 7-5, 6-4 in Tsitsipas' favor. Don't rule anything out entirely because the 22-year-old Greek fell in the third round of the U.S. Open before failing to win his first match of the Italian Open. 

Tsitsipas should move on but not before making things difficult for himself.