The French Open draw ceremony delivered the most difficult potential paths to the the title for the top three favorites.
Thursday’s proceedings in Paris put Rafael Nadal with Novak Djokovic in a brutal top quarter of the bracket. As if that isn’t tough enough, Carlos Alcaraz is also in the top half.
Nadal left himself at the mercy of the draw after losing to Denis Shapovalov in the Rome third round last week. That result propelled Stefanos Tsitsipas past Nadal in the rankings, giving the 2021 French Open runner-up a top-four seed in Paris. Nadal fell into the 5-8 seeded group at No. 8, as we saw on Thursday that ended up costing him dearly. Of course, the 13-time Roland Garros champion’s ongoing foot injury was a big problem in Rome so it remains to be seen if he can even make a possible quarterfinal matchup with Djokovic become a reality.
Up first for Nadal is Jordan Thompson, while Felix Auger-Aliassime–who is coached by Toni Nadal–could be a fourth-round opponent.
Alcaraz may not like seeing Djokovic and Nadal in the same half, but he won’t be looking ahead just yet to a possible semifinal showdown against one of those two all-time greats. In round three the 19-year-old Spaniard could run into Sebastian Korda, the only player to beat him on clay this season. Alcaraz lost to Korda in Monte-Carlo before reeling off titles in Barcelona and Madrid. The world No. 6, who proceeded to withdraw from Rome, also lifted the Rio de Janeiro trophy earlier this year.
The bottom half, of course, is the place to be. It is shaping up nicely for Tsitsipas to make a return trip to the final, while Andrey Rublev and Jannik Sinner are also contenders. If Rublev and Sinner square off in the fourth round, the winner would be favored against anyone in the quarterfinals. It probably won’t be No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev, but rather Miomir Kecmanovic, Pablo Carreno Busta, or Marin Cilic.
Tsitsipas’ section is friendly as a whole, but the Greek has to go up against Lorenzo Musetti in round one.
Oh and I also agree that not being the favorite will help Rafa. He never likes having all the attention on himself. Let everyone blather on about Novak and Alcaraz. In the end, as Rafa has said in the past, it’s what happens on the court that counts.
Nny, let’s hope so! I am trying to be upbeat..! I do genuinely think the removal of pressure will help him.
amy,
Nice to see you here again. I see that you had to get caught up. I don’t know how upbeat I will be. This is the worst case scenario for Rafa. We don’t even know if he can get to the quarterfinals. It all depends on the foot. I do not want to see a repeat of what happened in Rome.
Well I am glad I missed Rome nny!
Let’s see how he goes. I am looking forward to talking with you again…
Fingers crossed!!
amy,
🤞
I see Djokovic as the favourite right now.
Nobody has mentioned Zverev, but he has a chance if he plays his best tennis.
Are you kidding? When does Zverev play his best tennis at slams? There is a reason he lost in the fourth round to Shapo at the AO. He played like crap. Zverev is not winning RG.
Well I might agree with that, except that Zverev made the SF last year and almost beat Tsitsipas, but his draw is super tough, so there is that, for me he is the 4th best clay player right now though.
Zverev plays just as well at Slams as he does in Masters – maybe I should say plays even better, since he has reached semis and finals of Slams – with a significant number of five setters. Thats talking purely about his tennis .
No he doesn’t or he would have won a slam title by now. Like Meddy did when he beat Novak at the USO. He is far too inconsistent to win a slam. He had a great opportunity at the AO with Novak out. But his performance against Shapo was dreadful.
he almost won the US Open in 2020.
Zverev winning RG is a long shot, but not impossible.
No ranking points at wimby this year https://www.atptour.com/en/news/atp-wimbledon-decision-2022-faq
Just read that the ATP has stripped Wimbledon of ability to award points, thereby basically reducing it to an exhibition event.
Wow!
I just saw this. I doubt very much that wimby will back down. In all the reports and polls I have seen public opinion in GB is overwhelmingly in favour of the ban and extremely rude comments are made about the tennis players criticizing it.
I also just saw that Chris Bryant who is chair of the All Party Parliamentary Committee said a week or so ago that the ATP was behaving appallingly and asked if they wanted Putin to win.
Might be nice if the players cared as much about the Ukrainian players whose country is under genocidal attack and who can scarcely play for stress as they do the Russian players who will only have to miss a tennis tournament.
I have already said what I think above but I have plenty more sarcasm and comments in the pipe line.
Maybe best thing would be to exclude Ukranian players as well , to keep it fair?
This war is no tennis players fault.
It’s not an exho event..it has slam status .just no ranking points .
So if rafa wins wimby this year ,all Novak fans will put * against it ..lol
lol if Novax wins RG, * *
Leave all asterisks off the trophys. Bite marks are bad enough 😉
Seriously I have mixed feelings about the ban- if the players would condemn the war thwen they should be allowed to play.But they wont do that , for their own safety I guess, and the whole thing is bound to cause friction between the players.
Its not quite the same situation in as 1982 when argentinians couldnt play there -this time though Ill miss Meddy in poarticular as he has a decent flat hitting game for grass.
I guess that Rafa is the last person who wants himself to crash out of RG due to physical issues again. So maybe Rome was an accident and the chances for this to happen again in Paris are not that big. I feel that all things considered he stands a far better chance to win RG than he did for AO.
Regarding Wimbledon, the player council and the ATP/WTA kind of have to play the devil’s advocate, its their job to represent ANY professional player regardless of how they feel about it personally. Now Novax may feel close to his Russian cousins, but Rafa for sure doesn’t love them that much. The situation is complicated. I feel satisfied that Russians won’t play Wimbledon, but I understand that someone must stand by them regardless of their personal convictions.
Very tough draw for both Rafa and Joker….I like Carlos to win….but keep an eye on Kec, Rudd, Rune, and Sinner
Reading some of the posts here, disappointing double standards.
Put players and their fans down just because they might be rivals for the RG title. Just enjoy the two weeks FFS!
get lost sad troll.
*against the Wimbledon title? Well there’s already an *against the AO title this year! Who cares!
Several years later, who would still remember all these? What the records show would be all the winners’ names, no ** against them! I don’t understand why people are so bothered about * or not, they really don’t matter in the grand scheme of things!
You have to beat whoever you face to get to the title, you can’t choose who you want to face, can you? Whoever that’s absent for whatever reason, well that’s not the winner’s fault!
Just like Fed in the era when he had little competition , setting records all over the place…
I bet Rafa has * against most of his FO titles when some argued he didn’t beat some FO champions to win his FOs! Who cares beating FO champions or not, people only remember the champion himself, not who he beat in the final. Twenty or thirty years down the road, who cares he beats Thiem or Puerto in the final! Perhaps beating Fed or Djoko carries some weight though, as they’re his fellow big three.
Well isnt that’s exactly the point you were arguing against about Fed and weak competition when he was winning nearly everything? I don’t believe in asterisks myself. It’s some achievement to win the career even for Agassi in 1999 beat Medvedev in the final
No one giving rafa a chance.. well his foot is dodgy so its right too.. it’s djoko ,alcaraz or tsitsipas https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/expert-picks-predictions-of-roland-garros-champions-sleepers-and-disappointments
Rafa’s giving himself a chance! That’s good enough for me.
well said Ramara!
That’s not me! Get lost anonymous.
It’s getting very boring having anon impersonate people all the time..
I see Alcaraz and Zverev are playing tomorrow. Presumably Rafa and Novax will play on Monday.
Patrick McEnroe has released a furious video clip of him saying that RG has to change its seeding to the old wimby system. This is what I said yesterday! He said that Med being #2 on clay is ridiculous and that tournaments are being ruined by Rafole meeting early.
I agree with all this as I said yesterday. Wimby should go back to its old seeding as well.
Also, Rafa and Alcaraz are the #5 and 6 seeds. In the past, am sure 5 and 6 got placed in opposite sections of draw? As with #7 and 8. If so, let’s revert to this! The draw this year with Rafa, Novax, Alcaraz and Zverev all on one side is ridiculous. It’s ruining tournaments having these lopsided draws. If Tsitsi win s because the other half of the draw throws up someone who is half dead after playing several 5 setters while Tsitsi has had a nice stroll through his half then his win gets an * from me.
I don’t believe it.Selective asterisking
So what do you think about the basic point about seeding weighted around performance on the surface?
I agree with that.
Yes I agree- but has to go on overall ranking as well.The problems not as bad as it used to be when the surfaces were totally different in speed .
Most forums I’ve been on require to to log in .It doesn’t prevent trolls altogether but bound to help .Also there were mods
It’s true that there is no security here. I posted sth by mistake yesterday with no name and no email. In every other forum I have commented on it wouldn’t have gone through.
This whole impersonation business is getting very wearying.
Also, as you say, people got moderated.
If tsitsi wins the French it would be no fluke after his performances on clay esp last year’s final.To say asterisk it is rather churlish
Just like it was churlish to say that Rafa winning the AO would not mean as much because Novak wasn’t there. Why? Because Novak thinks he is special and does not have to get vaccinated.
Don’t do it for Rafa with asterisks and not for others. Talk about hypocrisy!
Just like it was churlish to say that Rafa winning the AO would not mean as much because Novak wasn’t there. Why? Because Novak thinks he is special and does not have to get vaccinated.
Don’t do it for Rafa with asterisks and not for others. Talk about hypocrisy!
Sorry for the double post.
Hypocrite? You know well that I said Rafa really deserved his AO title . I’m the one whose been arguing against the asterisks.