A showdown between Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka headlines the first day of main-draw competition at the 2024 French Open on Sunday. Carlos Alcaraz is also taking the court, as he faces lucky loser J.J. Wolf.
Stan Wawrinka vs. Andy Murray
It will be a rematch of two French Open semifinals when Murray and Wawrinka collide for the 24th time in their careers on Sunday night–and also for the second time in the first round. They split a pair of semifinal showdowns at Roland Garros in 2016 and 2017 before Wawrinka cruised 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 during opening-round action in 2020. They have faced each other only once since then, with Murray prevailing 7-6(3), 5-7, 7-5 at the 2022 Cincinnati Masters to take a 13-10 lead in the head-to-head series (13-9 on the main tour.
Both players, of course, remain well past their prime. Murray, 37, has played well at times over the past couple of seasons even though injuries continue to be a problem. He suffered a badly sprained ankle at the Miami Open and has played only one tournament since, losing to Gregoire Barrere in round two of the Bordeaux Challenger. The fact that the world No. 75 has even made it to Paris is a bit of a surprise. Wawrinka, 39, is a dreadful 2-7 at the ATP level this season and also fell in the Bordeaux second round (to Pedro Martinez). This is a tough one to call given each veteran’s questionable-at-best status, but Wawrinka is generally better than Murray on clay and the Scot is rusty due to his ankle injury.
Pick: Wawrinka in 4
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(LL) J.J. Wolf vs. (3) Carlos Alcaraz
Alcaraz heads into the French Open as a question mark, having dealt with a right-arm injury throughout the clay-court swing. The third-ranked Spaniard skipped Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, and Rome, making an appearance only in Madrid–where he was the two-time defending champion. Alcaraz picked up a trio of wins–including over Jan-Lennard Struff in a third-set tiebreaker–but lost to eventual champion Andrey Rublev in the quarters.
If Alcaraz needs to ease into the tournament, his first-round matchup presents a perfect opportunity to do so. Wolf’s 2024 campaign has been a disaster and it continued with a 6-1, 6-2 qualifying setback against Jesper de Jong, but he got a lucky-loser spot in the main draw. The 107th-ranked American is a horrendous 1-6 on the main tour this year and has even lost in the opening round of four Challenger events. Unless Alcaraz is way less than 100 percent, this should be one-way traffic from start to finish.
Pick: Alcaraz in 3
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