There are two Big 3 vs. young Italian showdowns on Monday at Roland Garros, including Novak Djokovic vs. Lorenzo Musetti. Less notable but equally important with a quarterfinal spot at stake is a clash between Diego Schwartzman and Jan-Lennard Struff.
(1) Novak Djokovic vs. Lorenzo Musetti
It will be a clash of generations–the current world No. 1 vs. a potential future Grand Slam champion–when Djokovic and Musetti square off in round four of the French Open on Monday. That makes it look great on paper, but on the court it will probably end up being less glamorous. Djokovic, of course, is a massive favorite–and for good reason. The top-seeded Serb may not have been in dominant form earlier in the clay-court swing, but his motivation level is only piqued by slams at this point. Unsurprisingly, Djokovic’s level has increased significantly in Paris. He has advanced so far with defeats of Tennys Sandgren, Pablo Cuevas, and Ricardas Berankis and no opponent has made any set closer than 6-4.
Musetti is through to the last 16 in his first-ever major main-draw appearance. Obviously the 19-year-old Italian has nothing to lose, but there will still be plenty of nerves on such a huge stage. Musetti erased David Goffin and Yoshihito Nishioka in straight sets but a five-setter against compatriot Marco Cecchinato on Saturday does not exactly help. Then again, Djokovic will almost surely end this one long before fitness levels become an issue.
Pick: Djokovic in 3 losing 11 games or fewer
(10) Diego Schwartzman vs. Jan-Lennard Struff
Schwartzman and Struff will be going head-to-head for the third time in their careers on Monday. They have split their two previous encounters, although their past history is more encouraging for Schwartzman heading into a clay-court contest. The Argentine cruised 6-3, 6-0 at the 2017 Monte-Carlo Masters, whereas Struff prevailed on an indoor hard court (6-3, 7-6(8) at the 2019 Davis Cup Finals).
That isn’t to say that clay automatically means a Schwartzman win. Struff also made a run to the French Open fourth round in 2019 and his 2021 clay-court swing already featured a runner-up performance in Munich. So far in Paris the 42nd-ranked German has taken out Andrey Rublev, Facundo Bagnis, and Carlos Alcaraz–the latter two in straight sets. Schwartzman has found his form with straight-set beatdowns of Yen-Hsun Lu, Aljaz Bedene, and Philipp Kohlschreiber. A steep step up in competition means the world No. 10 is in for his first tough test of the fortnight, and this should be an entertaining and competitive contrast in styles. In the end, Schwartzman’s consistency and counter-punching will likely break down Struff.
Pick: Schwartzman in 5
Ok Nole winning easily now. Hope this is over quickly so Rafa can get on court.
But Nole has shown he is beatable today.
Testing
It looks like this young kus has run out gas. Novak woke up.
But Novak is not looking unbeatable.
Musetti needs to muResetti in the fifth set
Djokovic not getting enough spotlight and faking a comeback win or just a bad day at the office? Is he playing injured already?
When the tournament predictions were made, the question was who’s to stop Novak from getting to the SFs. Just about anyone it seems, with some help from the Serb.
Not feeling like being beaten by Rafa twice in a month, perhaps, or saving his breath for Wimbledon.
I’m just having a bit of fun, this is obviously far from over.
Testing testing
Thus match is going to be over really fast.
What is with Musetti, though? Ran out of gas? It’s like a completely different player in the 3rd and 4th!!!
Now medical time out for Musetti, lol!!! He looked like a complete different player in the previous 2 sets! Rafa makes playing on clay look so easy!!
This kid can’t even win a game.
Had a feeling the Italians would do the unexpected with 3 still in the draw.
Go away and stop trolling us!
Gosh, a walk over? Wow!! And they say Rafa’s draw is easy!! Two walkovers on the same side of the draw!!! Sigh! It only goes to show how amazing Rafa is to win RG so many times without any such luck!!
This is a disgrace. The way this match ended. So Novak stinks up the court to go down two sets and then the guy just bascalkt quits.
Basically quits! So he suddenly got hurt? Or he didn’t want to get bageled again?
Great effort to take Djokovic to 5 sets in first attempt at RG. He’s got a big future.
Lol!
I think so too, but I thought he may have picked up an injury and not just quit! The kid looked like Roger in the first two sets! Novak was just giddy, had no answers at all!! If you take away pace from Novak he just loses all confidence in his game, quite remarkable that! Like no plan B!
Well Djokovic is still pretty far from the three walkovers that he received during USO 2016 – even so he didn’t manage to win that tournament. If Federer had an easier match on Saturday he would have retired before the SF – a walkover opportunity lost by the Serb. I am glad that the Italian retired before completing the match, the Serb does not deserve any credit for this “win”. Lucky as hell, as usually. I’m not saying that he was necessarily losing, but he could/should have gone to 4-5 hours of playing.