The 2020 French Open draw ceremony was held on Thursday, and the big story was always going to be the placement of U.S. Open champion Dominic Thiem.
Well, there will be no third consecutive Thiem vs. Rafael Nadal final at Roland Garros. The third-seeded Austrian landed in the bottom half of the bracket, making a semifinal showdown with Nadal possible.
A Nadal-Thiem semi is probable, in fact, but it is by no means a slam dunk. Thiem’s draw is brutal the entire way, starting with Marin Cilic before likely featuring Reilly Opelka in round two, Casper Ruud in round three, either Felix Auger-Aliassime or Stan Wawrinka in round four, and Diego Schwartzman in the quarterfinals. The marquee matchup of the entire first round is also taking place in that section, as Grand Slam champions Wawrinka and Andy Murray are going head-to-head right off the bat.
Although Nadal’s draw could get ugly in the second week, it should be simple in the early stages. The Spaniard’s nearest seeds are Dan Evans, Fabio Fognini, and John Isner. Evans is not good on clay and neither Fognini nor Isner has been playing well since tennis returned from the coronavirus hiatus. U.S. Open runner-up Alexander Zverev is a potential quarterfinal opponent for Nadal.
The bracket could not set up any better for world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who has lost to Thiem in two of the last three French Opens–including in a five-set semifinal last spring. Not only did Djokovic avoid his biggest threat other than Nadal, but his entire quarter is weak. The 33-year-old Serb should have no trouble whatsoever until possibly running into either Roberto Bautista Agut or U.S. Open semifinalist Pablo Carreno Busta in the last eight.
There is much more intrigue in the other section of the top half. Semifinal contenders include Daniil Medevedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Denis Shapovalov, Andrey Rublev, and Grigor Dimitrov.
Yeah, Tsitsi – Thiem is possible, too.
Rafa Nadal – “It’s a very strange situation. Here the conditions are very, very tough. The weather is so, so cold, so that makes it difficult for everyone. But the conditions are a little bit extreme to play our tournament.”
Its a level playing field. I hope Rafa doesnt use weather or the balls as an excuse
Rafa won’t but we Rafans may! :-}
Whatever weather Rafa can win! It’s not the weather or the opponents, it’s himself. He won 12 and lost just 2, that should tell us how dominant he is at RG.
I agree completely. Enough of the complaints, just go out there and play your game, you are the greatest clay court player in History and possibly forever. Go out there rafa and do your thing and the rest is history. Tired of all these complaints about this and that, Borg would never be complaining about anything at the french open with how dominant he was. Maybe Borg should call rafa and give him a pep talk and snap him back to the reality of: no matter the conditions/circumstance/tough draw, you can and SHOULD win this. The end.
Exactly.But some people have him losing already .
I wonder IF he loses early would this be the end of his big run just as it was for other great champions like Borg and Sampras.They never recovered.
For heaven’s sake Al!why are you sniping about Rafa and his fans so much!
This is a unique year in tennis because of covid and the cancellation of tournaments; it can’t be compared with any in the past!
It was Thiem I quoted above saying the ball doesn’t favour his game and won’t favour Rafa either!
I am routinely very supportive to Fed fans when he loses or has problems so it is very disappointing that you keep sniping…
Exactly Amy, it’s quite sickening to find someone always sniping at the Rafa fans.
When are you going to be bothered about Rogers end run ? Last I heard he has not won a slam for 2.75 years . Too much obsessed about Rafas run ending ?
Not sniping ,just giving a different view when everyone is so pro-Rafa on here.Amy,Lucky,see my post earlier 4.25.
It’s true that once a long run if domination ends it’s often the end of a player eg Borg,Sampras.Federers run ended a long time ago but he still managed to hang around and win the odd Slam. Nothing personal meant against Nadal,you’re a touchy lot!
Sampras won the USO and retired on the spot. Figured he’d done enough. Borg says he retired because he hadn’t been “feeling it” for over a year. I don’t think he lost his last RG, just his Wimbly and then USO (which he’d never won, although he got to the finals once or twice). I think he just wanted to try “partying” while he was still young.
People have been burying Nadal for years. I thought he was done at the end of 2015. I thought he might never get over his knee problem in 2013. I figure next time I “bury” him I’ll make sure he’s “dead” first. As in retired.
And sorry you cant discuss tennis a bit more objectively instead of this fan-based stuff ,Sanju et al.
Rafa himself has been complaining about the conditions .
What gets me is that his fans cant even cope with a single possible loss just because the conditions don’t favour him.
Ramara , that wasn’t to you ,meant for the posts above.
The semis will be between Djokovic and Shapovalov, and Thiem and Nadal. There’s no one to stop Novak this year … https://www.138mph.com/just-hand-the-roland-garros-trophy-to-novak-djokovic/
Yeah Kavita, exactly. Like Nadal or Thiem, who are them on clay, right? Some unknown players. Djoko is vulnerable. The key is for the opponent to be consistent. He was dominated by Raonic who could have closed in 2 at Cinci, Bautista played badly the tb, and Carreno basically took 1st off him.
Nadal and Thiem can play him down on clay.
It will be fun if novak loses before even reaching the final…just to see what all those virtually handing him the title will have to say
On tennis.com..4/8 have novak winning…
Where are your RG match picks Ricky? 😉
Nobody should be stupid enough to hand the trophy to Novak. They said he was a sure bet at the USO. But he did himself in when he hit the lineswoman with a ball in the throat.
I already said that I don’t think RG should even be played. The virus is still a threat. Conditions are bad, new balls that are heavy. Excuse my language, but it’s a cluster fuck. Rafa is coming in with 3 matches. He hasn’t played a best of five set match in months.
I think they should have waited until next year when hopefully there is a vaccine.
I don’t intend to put up with any garbage about making excuses for Rafa. It’s about telling the truth when it comes to the reality of playing in a pandemic.