Will Maxi overcome the first hurdle?

Maximilian Marterer, who has been knocked back to 239th in the ATP world rankings by injuries, has fought his way through the qualifying rounds to the 2025 French Open and is now returning to the biggest stage in tennis. As a qualifier, he could have faced virtually any opponent, but he has been lucky to draw Adam Walton. The Australian has won only one singles match at Grand Slam level, which is why Maximilian Marterer’s chances of advancing to the second round against Adam Walton look good.

At least at Roland Garros, the Nuremberg native is anything but an unknown quantity. In 2018, Maxi stormed into the round of 16, where he was only defeated by record winner Rafael Nadal. Accordingly, the prediction for Maximilian Marterer against Adam Walton is that the German will build on his convincing performances in qualifying and now make it through to the second round.

While Maximilian Marterer has only played one ranked match on the ATP Tour in the 2025 season, his opponent Adam Walton has also only played twelve matches, losing eight of them. However, this is less due to injuries than to the fact that the Australian, ranked 91st in the world, mainly plays on the ATP Challenger Tour and in ITF tournaments. So if the German can regain his old form, there is a lot to suggest that he will win.

Maximilian Marterer – Statistics & current form

29-year-old German Maximilian Marterer has recently been set back by a number of injuries and has only played three singles matches in the 2025 calendar year in the run-up to the French Open 2025 – including only one match that officially counts towards the ATP Tour rankings. Still, he won that match at the end of January in his international appearance for Germany against Israel, although his opponent Yshai Oliel, ranked 531st in the world, was not the biggest challenge.

However, following a long break, the Nuremberg native has now slipped to 239th in the ATP world rankings, which is why he had to go through qualifying at Roland Garros, where he once stormed into the round of 16 in 2018 and challenged record winner Rafael Nadal. However, he had no trouble at all in the three rounds against Edas Butvilas, Federico Coria, and Federico Arnaboldi. Without losing a set, Maxi secured his ticket to the main draw, where he could now theoretically be paired with top stars such as Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, or even Novak Djokovic.

Is Maximilian Marterer back to his old self?

In this respect, the 29-year-old has been lucky in the draw, as the bookmakers clearly favor Maximilian Marterer against Adam Walton. At VBET, where new customers can get a 100% bonus up to €100 and a €5 free bet with the VBET bonus, the odds for him reaching the second round are 1.31.

No wonder, because the Nuremberg native’s performance data in qualifying was highly impressive. In the all-important round against Federico Arnaboldi, for example, Maxi scored with his second serve in 68 percent of all cases, did not drop a single service game (while fending off six break points) and won an impressive 43 percent of return points with 24 winners. If he can reproduce similar performances on court, he could further improve his French Open record. So far, the German has won four of his eight singles matches in the main draw at Roland Garros.

Adam Walton – Statistics & current form

The 26-year-old Australian Adam Walton only competed on the ITF until late in his career before making the leap to the ATP Challenger Tour in 2023, where he quickly won his first titles before playing his first major tournaments in 2024. However, the latter have been completely unsuccessful so far. He often failed to make it through the qualifying rounds. And when he did, it was usually in the first round of the main draw.

All the more surprising was his run at the 2025 Miami Masters, where he surprisingly advanced to the round of 16 as a lucky loser. Admittedly, he did not beat any heavyweights in Luciani Darderi and Coleman Wong. Nevertheless, he earned enough points for the rankings to climb to 85th in the ATP world rankings. Because things haven’t been going so well lately, the 26-year-old has slipped back a bit. As the world number 91, however, he was still able to skip the qualifying rounds at this year’s French Open.

Adam Walton mostly underwhelmed on clay

Nevertheless, Maximilian Marterer’s odds against Adam Walton in the seventh singles match at Grand Slam level are not looking good for his second victory. In his last preparatory tournament at the beginning of May, he was forced to retire due to injury against André Ilagan (ATP 380) at an ATP Challenger tournament in China. The week before, he had already suffered a 1-2 defeat against Alibek Kachmazov (ATP 185).

Also noteworthy: the Australian clearly prefers fast surfaces and, for example, won all four singles titles on the ATP Challenger Tour on hard courts. He did not play a single clay court tournament during the clay court season, which could now also be a factor. A year ago, the man from Down Under, who was given a wild card to start at Roland Garros, came away empty-handed. He lost 0-3 in his first match against Arthur Rinderknech (2-6, 4-6, and 5-7). A similar result would certainly not be surprising now.

Maximilian Marterer – Adam Walton Head-to-head record

Head to head: 0:0

There has never been a ranked singles match between these two athletes before. Consequently, there is no head-to-head data available that could influence our prediction for Maximilian Marterer against Adam Walton.

Maximilian Marterer – Adam Walton Tip

The top bookmakers are also favoring Maximilian Marterer against Adam Walton, with the Nuremberg native looking to put his injuries at Roland Garros behind him and having already shown promising form in qualifying. His Australian challenger has won only one singles match at Grand Slam level, celebrating that victory on grass at Wimbledon in 2024. On clay, however, Adam Walton has never won a match in the men’s singles of a tennis major tournament, which clearly marks him as the underdog in this duel.

Accordingly, the tip is that Maxi will reach the next round, where the level could rise dramatically if Andrey Rublev, the first seeded opponent, awaits him. We assume that he will lose a maximum of one set against the Australian and will pass the first hurdle with flying colors.