Rafael Nadal begins his campaign for a 12th French Open title on Monday against German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann. No. 20 seed Denis Shapovalov may have a tougher test on his hands with in-form German Jan-Lennard Struff.
(2) Rafael Nadal vs. (Q) Yannick Hanfmann
Rafael Nadal came close to coming into the French Open without a title. The Spaniard struggled with his form early in the spring clay court swing, exiting in the semifinals in Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, and Madrid before finding his game in time for Rome. There, he completely decimated the field and decisively outplayed main rival Novak Djokovic in the final.
This is quite a lop-sided first match for the Roland Garros defending champion. Yannick Hanfmann will be contesting his first tour-level match of the year. He tried to qualify for the 250-level event in Munich but lost in the first round of qualies. In fact, the German has only won a single Challenger match in 2019 so far. He did well to get through qualifying at Roland Garros, but his reward for all of the hard work is a first-round meeting with Nadal.
This should be a quick in-and-out for Nadal, who was fantastic at the Rome Masters.
Cheryl pick: Nadal in 3
Ricky pick: Nadal in 3
[polldaddy poll=10329051]
(20) Denis Shapovalov vs. Jan-Lennard Struff
Denis Shapovalov is one of the best young players on tour. A strong spring hard court swing caused Shapovalov’s ranking shoot up to 20th in the world in April, though lackluster results on clay has seen it dip back to No. 24. The Canadian is a force to be reckoned with on hard courts, as evidenced by his semifinal run at the Miami Masters. But his game hasn’t adapted very well to the dirt. In fact, an unkind draw handed him a competent clay-court player in Jan-Lennard Struff, who has already beaten Shapovalov this spring in Monte-Carlo.
Jan-Lennard Struff has enjoyed strong European clay swing. In addition to the win over Shapovalov, Struff took out Stefanos Tsitsipas, David Goffin, and Nick Kyrgios. The German sits at No. 45 in the world, and he has a good shot at dismissing Shapovalov on Monday.
Cheryl pick: Struff in 4
Ricky pick: Struff in 5
[polldaddy poll=10329052]
Thanks, Cheryl. I’ll go along with your picks. Rafa in 3, Struff in 4.
Keep calm, stay focused, remain confident, be strong and enjoy the game, Rafa!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7jnMWvXkAAzhmk.jpg
Dont know much about his opponent but I dont think it matters much, Nadal should be bursting out of the gates for this one given how much success he’s had on this court.
Nadal in 3
Im 51/49 between Struff winning in 5 or in 4.. Shapavalov is better at grand slam level even though this is arguably his weakest surface and I think he’s on the improve just in time for RG. 2 weeks ago I wouldve given him no hope of winning 2 sets so
Struff in 5
Think it’s time to stop underestimating Struff before he takes out a big scalp at RG!
Has to be one of the most improved players on the ATP past 12 months. A quiet achiever.
Fingers & toes crossed Rafa remains healthy and injury* free and we will see him bite yet again on a record 12b RG title,
* not that we will know – he is adept at concealing when he is in pain
He is moving very well Ed! Good sign…!☺
Rafa saves 4 break points in first game!😕 second serve very short
Break Rafa!☺☺
For a qualifier, Hanfmann is playing very solid. Amazing fhdtl by Rafa!! That’s the money shot…
Sad to see Petra pull out..😢
Set Rafa!☺
Good to see the fh drop shot in action again!
wat happenned with medvedev?
Rafa has gone to sleep a bit..
Hawkeye will be happy that Herbert won!
Herbert always wins
Bravo Rafa! Nice win!
#12 is my favourite number..
Rafa did well! Hanfman is a little better player than his ranking but has some major deficiencies. His drop shot was worse than Novak’s in the Rome final! He’s the kind of player that could give Rafa some problems – tall (6’4), big serve, intelligent, good backhand – but way out of his depth.
was medvedev injured or so how could he lose after being 2-0 up.
Dunno but Herbert has become a pretty decent singles player and had the home crowd behind him and Medvedev has kind of faded since making the Barcelona final and losing badly to Thiem.
Vamos Rafa! ✌