Alcaraz and Tsitsipas are chasing Djokovic and Nadal

The health of record winner Rafael Nadal raises questions. Defending champion Novak Djokovic recently found his form. Who can dispute the title of the two at the French Open.

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Since 2005, the winners of the French Open in the men’s tableau can be counted on one hand: record winner Rafael Nadal won 13 times, defending champion Novak Djokovic lifted the Coupe des Mousquetaires twice (2016 and 2021). In 2009 Roger Federer completed the career Grand Slam in Paris, six years later Stan Wawrinka triumphed. Now the starting position is more open than it has been for a long time. Nadal is struggling with health problems. Djokovic reported back with a tournament victory in Rome. The currently most exciting player did not appear there: 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz. He’s not the only one who should make life difficult for Djokovic and Nadal. These are the title contenders – and that’s their chances of triumph.

Novak Djokovic: Favorite with title in Rome

At the beginning of the year it was questionable whether Djokovic could compete in Paris as someone who had not been vaccinated against the corona virus. But France has now largely lifted the measures. No one has defeated Sandkönig Nadal on his preferred surface more often than Djokovic (8:19 wins) and Djokovic is also the only player who was able to defeat Nadal more than once in Paris – most recently in 2021 in a thrilling semifinal. It is unclear how Djokovic will recover from the events in Australia at the beginning of the year, where he was held in detention pending deportation for several days and appeared in court twice before his visa was withdrawn and his chance to defend his title was taken away. In Monte Carlo, Djokovic was unable to hide the lack of match practice in the defeat against the eventual finalist, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, and then said that physically he had “completely collapsed”. In addition, Djokovic was apparently suffering from the aftermath of a viral disease. Most recently, he made an impressive comeback with a tournament win in Rome. In Paris, Djokovic expects a tough draw if it goes by paper: quarter-finals against Nadal, semi-finals against Zverev or Alcaraz, final against Tsitsipas.

Rafael Nadal: The foot as a question mark

At Roland Garros, Rafael Nadal is a living legend. No other player has won a single Grand Slam tournament more often than he did in Paris. He has won 13 times since 2005, 105 wins versus 3 losses against 2 players: In 2009 Nadal lost to the Swede Robin Söderling. Novak Djokovic managed the feat of defeating Nadal in Roland-Garros twice: in 2015 in the quarterfinals and last year in the semifinals. The Spaniard won the three final duels against the Serbs (2012, 2014 and 2020) – like all other 13 Paris finals. But in Djokovic’s semi-final success last year, many also see a turning point in Paris. Patrick Mouratoglou, who has already looked after Serena Williams and Stefanos Tsitsipas and is now Simona Halep’s coach, says: “When he’s in top form, Djokovic is the best player in the world, even on sand.” The question that cannot yet be answered is how far Rafael Nadal is from this. For the first time since 2003, he did not win a tournament on clay before the French Open. In addition, he had problems with his left foot in Rome. Nadal suffers from Müller-Weiss syndrome, a bone disease that caused him to deform the scaphoid in his metatarsus. These are complaints that can occur at any time and suddenly. In Rome he said: «There will come a moment when my head will say enough is enough because the pain takes away my happiness. Not just for tennis, but for my life.” Nevertheless, the hope of a 14th French Open title accompanies him. He says: “This is my dream.”

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Stefanos Tsitsipas: Last year’s finalist in the lucky draw

In Monte Carlo, Stefanos Tsitsipas managed what only Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray had managed since 2003: defending the title at a Masters tournament. The Greek also underpinned his ambitions for the first Grand Slam title. In the last two years he had failed in five sets against Novak Djokovic – 2020 in the semifinals, 2021 after a 2-0 set lead in the final. The Serb is also the only top-class player that Tsitsipas has not yet been able to defeat on clay, most recently losing in the Rome final. Sand King Rafael Nadal was able to bring Tsitsipas to his knees in Madrid in 2019 at the age of 20. It doesn’t take much imagination to imagine the 23-year-old Greek as a Paris winner. If he ends up lifting the Coupe des Mousquetaires, Tsitsipas could soon rise to the top of the world rankings. Only Rafael Nadal is ahead of him in the annual standings. And Novak Djokovic was robbed of the chance to remain at the top by the ATP’s decision not to award ranking points at Wimbledon. Tsitsipas is also the big winner of the draw: With Nadal, Djokovic and Alcaraz, the three biggest contenders for tournament victory were drawn to the other half of the tableau, while Tsitsipas landed with the Russian Daniil Medvedev, who is not very experienced on clay, and the Norwegian Casper Ruud, who played at Grand- Slam tournaments still owe a lot.

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Carlos Alcaraz: With a trick in the circle of favorites

The French sports newspaper “L’Equipe” devoted three pages in the run-up to the French Open to Carlos Alcaraz and went in search of traces in his home town of El Palmar in Murcia in south-eastern Spain, where he lives with his parents. The episode shows how big the hype about the Spaniard is. Not Rafael Nadal, not Novak Djokovic is the man of the hour, but a 19-year-old who will only play his sixth Grand Slam tournament. There is a good reason for this: Carlos Alcaraz combines Nadal’s intensity, Federer’s aggressiveness and Djokovic’s athleticism. Mentally, too, he can compete with the big ones. On the way to tournament victory in Madrid, he managed a feat that no one had previously managed on clay: victories over Rafael Nadal (in the quarterfinals) and Novak Djokovic (in the semifinals) in the same tournament. In the final he gave the two-time Madrid winner Alexander Zverev no chance at 6: 3, 6: 1.

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How great Alcaraz’ potential is had long been announced: in July 2021 he won his first ATP title in Umag, Croatia, at the lowest level (250), in February 2022 he left in Rio de Janeiro at the second highest level (ATP 500) followed by the second title and in March he won at the highest level, at the Masters tournament in Miami on a hard court. Only the Americans Michael Chang (1990 in Toronto) and Nadal (2005 in Monte Carlo) were younger than the then 18-year-old Alcaraz when they won their first master’s title. With the tournament victory in Barcelona, ​​Alcaraz advanced into the top ten in the world rankings. In 2021 he had reached the quarterfinals of the US Open with a win against Stefanos Tsitsipas, where he had to give up due to an injury. Alcaraz is looked after by compatriot Juan Carlos Ferrero, the 2003 Roland Garros winner. Something that Alcaraz also dares to do. “My goal is a Grand Slam title this year,” he said before the tournament.

Alexander Zverev: The scorned

Alexander Zverev has been in the top 5 for years, he has won the ATP finals twice, most recently at the end of 2021. He has also been in the final of the US Open (2020) and has already won 5 Masters tournaments, including two times in Madrid and once in Rome. A year ago, the now 25-year-old was in the semifinals in Paris, where he lost five sets to Tsitsipas. The game on sand suits Zverev. And yet the German has failed to prove that he is a title contender, especially at Grand Slam tournaments: in eleven attempts he has never won against a player from the top ten in the world rankings, which is why he is not in the ranks of the biggest favorites finds. Zverev is now also spurned by many supporters: the reason for this is the allegation of domestic violence that an ex-girlfriend has made against him and for which investigations are ongoing. Reporting on this suppresses the camp of the German.

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