Stefanos Tsitsipas and Dominic Thiem will kick off their French Open campaigns when the season’s second Grand Slam gets underway on Sunday. Tsitsipas awaits Jeremy Chardy, while Thiem faces Pablo Andujar.
(5) Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Jeremy Chardy
Tsitsipas and Chardy will be squaring off for the sixth time in their careers (fourth time at the ATP level) when they clash in round one of the French Open on Sunday evening. Tsitsipas has won three of their five previous encounters (two of three on the main tour), including two in a row. He prevailed 6-2, 7-6(3) at the 2018 Basel event and in a third-set tiebreaker at Queen’s Club in 2019.
It’s hard to see Chardy being that competitive in a Grand Slam and on a surface that heavily favors Tsitsipas. The fifth-ranked Greek came within one set of the Roland Garros final last fall and his current clay-court swing includes titles in Monte-Carlo and Lyon plus a runner-up performance in Barcelona (lost to Rafael Nadal from championship point up). Chardy was red hot on hard courts earlier this year, but he has cooled off of late. The 58th-ranked Frenchman is 3-6 in his last nine matches dating back to the Dubai quarterfinals. He has lost in round one of the last two French Opens and has not been past the second round since 2016. This should be one-way traffic for Tsitsipas from start to finish.
Pick: Tsitsipas in 3
Pablo Andujar vs. (4) Dominic Thiem
This could be a danger spot right off the bat for Thiem, mainly because of his own doing. The fourth-ranked Austrian is a two-time French Open runner-up and has often been considered the heir apparent to Nadal on clay, but he has been on a bit of a decline since capturing his first Grand Slam title at the 2020 U.S. Open. Struggling both mentally and physically at times in 2021, Thiem is just 9-7 for the season. He returned from a six-week absence with a semifinal showing in Rome, but he lost to Lorenzo Sonego in the Rome third round and to Cameron Norrie (6-3, 6-2) right away in Lyon.
Up first for the fourth seed is Andujar, who defeated Roger Federer in Geneva earlier this month. Of course, a clay-court win over Federer at this point in time hardly means much and the 68th-ranked Spaniard’s other results in 2021 have been thoroughly unspectacular. Andujar is good enough on this surface to put a scare into Thiem early, but the favorite will likely raise his level in the end.
Pick: Thiem in 4
WWW?
Tsitsipas is my pick. This match feels like it will be a long match, four, or five sets.
The best first set of the day! Tsitsipas won it, but Chardy was giving all he could. Tsitsi was the master of the tie-break fueled by confidence.
Somebody has to get tired and start making mistakes. I don’t remember Jeremy Chardy playing so well and competing so hard in a long time, maybe ever.
Poor Jeremy was crushed. All he had was spent in the first set. Congrats to Tsitsipas, he is in ridiculously awesome form.
Dimitrov 😒 One of my QFs gone already , but that section was wide open , I just went for him because of his Slam record
Yeah, me too. He was supposed to make the QF, but I got burned by Dimi again. Wondering who will be next to mess up my masterpiece?
I was going to go for Garin in the QF but thought he didnt have the Slam pedigree
Evans – pity
Yep, and also a great pity about Thiem.
Yep. Poor clay season, and guess we can forget the grass one for him its not really his surface.