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.
Leave a Reply