Fellow seeds and recent Rome opponents Fabio Fognini and Alexander Zverev will begin their Roland Garros campaigns on Monday. Fognini is facing Frances Tiafoe, while Zverev hopes to keep his hot streak going a the expense of Fernando Verdasco.
Frances Tiafoe vs. (28) Fabio Fognini
Fognini and Tiafoe will be squaring off for the first time in their careers when they clash in round one of the French Open on Monday. This is a showdown between two considerable talents who are unafraid to play high-risk, high-reward tennis from the back of the court. At just 19 years old, Tiafoe is starting to put it all together and he is being rewarded with a ranking of No. 66 in the world (one spot off his career-high). The American won two clay-court Challenger titles this spring, so his preparation for Roland Garros has been just about ideal.
The same cannot be said for Fognini, who has other things on his mind aside from tennis at the moment. He pushed Nadal to three sets in Madrid and showed signs of making a big run at home in Rome by upsetting world No. 1 Andy Murray in the second round, but his motivation level dipped against Alexander Zverev one match later with the birth of his first child imminent. That birth did, in fact, take place during the Rome event. The 29th-ranked Italian has been his typical self in 2017, with wild fluctuations in form (from a semifinal showing in Miami, for example, to five-opening match losses). This is a massive opportunity for Tiafoe to pick up his second–and biggest–Grand Slam main-draw win.
Pick: Tiafoe in 5
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(9) Alexander Zverev vs. Fernando Verdasco
Zverev has been one of the best players on the entire tour this season and he is coming off the biggest title of his career at the Rome Masters, but the French Open draw gave him no rewards. The 20-year-old German could face Pablo Cuevas in the third round and Kei Nishikori in the last 16 just to reach the quarterfinals. Before that, however, Zverev must survive an opening date with Verdasco on Tuesday. The head-to-head series stands at 1-1, with Verdasco getting the job done 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-3 on the indoor hard courts of Metz before Zverev just recently prevailed 7-5, 6-3 in the Madrid first round.
Zverev’s Rome run included wins over Fognini, Milos Raonic, John Isner, and Novak Djokovic–the latter via a 6-4, 6-3 victory in the final. He is into the top 10 for the first time and he is somewhere between confident enough and cocky enough to know he belongs there–and thus he is likely to stay there rather than fizzle out. Verdasco, a former top 10 player (career-high of No. 7) , currently finds himself at 37th now that he appears to have exited his prime at 33 years old. The Spaniard, who is a mediocre 14-11 this season, will likely be the victim of too many backhand-to-backhand rallies against the red-hot Zverev.
Pick: Zverev in 4
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