Djokovic, Nadal, Alcaraz All On Brutal Half Of French Open Draw
While Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev liked what they saw with the French Open draw a few hours ago, the three tournament favorites — Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz — can’t be thrilled.
All three ended up on the same half of the draw with Nadal landing in the Djokovic quarter! That’s right, so in this perfect storm scenario Djokovic would play Nadal in the quarters with Alcaraz in the semifinals.
And if that’s not enough, in the earlier rounds Djokovic could have to deal with Jenson Brooksby in the third round, then Diego Schwartzman in the fourth.
Nadal might have former champion Stan Wawrinka in the second round, Felix Auger-Aliassime (or Reilly Opelka) in his fourth round.
Alcaraz will have his hands full with Sebastian Korda in the third (remember Korda beat him last month), then Cam Norrie in the fourth followed by Alexander Zverev in the quarters.
Upsets will happen, but on paper there are no easy roads in that top half.
The bottom is far more open and far more friendly for the likes of a Tsitsipas who is the clear favorite to get back to the final.
Casper Ruud is starting to play better, Jannik Sinner is in there along with the second-seeded Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev. But other than Ruud and maybe Sinner or Rublev, I don’t see anyone stopping Tsitsipas from returning to the title match.
Tsitsipas opens against Lorenzo Musetti who is finally playing some good tennis after his collapse to Djokovic almost a year ago. Then it’s Alex De Minaur or Denis Shapovalov in the fourth, maybe Ruud in the quarters.
Medvedev has a great draw but the guy never plays well in Paris, just had a surgery and just lost to Richard Gasquet in his return in Geneva. So someone like Miomir Kecmanovic could be the guy to take him out in the third round. So it will likely be the Rublev/Sinner QF winner to come out to the semifinal to face Tsitsipas — I think Rublev is the more season player vs the Italian who struggles against top guys in best-of-5.
But I think looking at the draw, put Tsitsipas in the final and then on the top half I guess Alcaraz would be the more clear choice over Zverev than trying to pick a Djokovic-Nadal winner.
All this leaves a Djokovic with having to beat Nadal, Alcaraz and then Tsitsipas. Nadal doing the same and Alcaraz going through Zverev, Djokovic/Nadal an then Tsitsipas.
And this is good news for Tsitsipas or the bottom half finalist who should be far fresher than the top half finalist. So opportunity for a Tsitsipas, Ruud or even Rublev for a first Slam? I think so. Will it happen?
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