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Roland Garros was rescheduled to start in September this year, but the expectation is as high as ever for the Grand Slam on clay. Twenty-eight of the top 30 players in the FedEx ATP Rankings lead the way in Paris, with world No. 1 Novak Djokovic and 12-time champion Rafael Nadal topping the list.
ATPTour.com looks at 10 things to keep in mind in the next fortnight:
1) Novak bets on a second-career Grand Slam: Djokovic has been the best player of 2020. He will try to maintain that momentum as he seeks to become the first man in the Open Era to complete the Career Grand Slam twice (Emerson and Laver did too, but not quite in the Open Era). . ).
Djokovic, who won a record 36th ATP Masters 1000 trophy at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, completed his first Career Grand Slam in Paris four years ago. Djokovic opens against 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals competitor Mikael Ymer.
Listen to the Roland Garros preview from ATP Tennis Radio:
2) Rafa goes for 13: Nadal will pursue his thirteenth Coupe des Mousquetaires in Paris this year. The Spaniard has an incredible 93-2 record on the clay court. If the southpaw triumphs again, he will reach 100 victories in the tournament.
Nadal is already the only player to win 12 titles in a single Grand Slam and the only man to claim 12 trophies in a circuit-level event. The second seed begins his career against Egor Gerasimov.
3) New Slam Thiem champion: Dominic Thiem, who has reached the final at Roland Garros for the past two years, will be more confident than ever when starting this event. The Austrian just won his first major trophy at the US Open. He didn’t play any clay court events before Paris, but he has won 10 of his 17 tour-level titles on the surface.
The 27-year-old, facing an ordeal in the first round against former world No. 3 Marin Cilic, has advanced to at least the Roland Garros semi-finals in the past four years. Thiem is trying to become the first Austrian to win multiple major crowns.
You may also be interested: Thiem sees a ‘great challenge’ to repeat the success of the US Open in Paris
4) Historical implications: If Nadal wins a record 13th Roland Garros title, he will tie Roger Federer for the most Grand Slam trophies in history at 20. If Djokovic triumphs, the Serbian will lift his 18th major title, placing himself one behind Nadal ( 19) and two from Federer (20). A Thiem win will allow him to overtake Nadal for No. 2. Since Nadal edged out Lleyton Hewitt for that spot on July 25, 2005, only the Big Four have held that spot in the FedEx ATP Rankings.
5) Blockbuster openers: There are two first-round blockbusters among Grand Slam champions. Third seed Thiem will play 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic and sixteenth seed Stan Wawrinka faces former World No. 1 Andy Murray. This is the first time that two big winners will fight in the first round of Roland Garros since Yevgeny Kafelnikov beat Michael Chang in 1999.
6) Medvedev making his move: Fourth seed Daniil Medvedev, a newcomer to the US Open semifinals, will attempt a deep run in Paris. He begins his tournament without a victory at Roland Garros (0-3), but having enjoyed previous successes on clay. The Russian reached the final in Barcelona and the semifinals in Monte Carlo last year. Medvedev plays Hungarian Marton Fucsovics in the first round.
7) Children of former Slam champions in the main draw: Emilio Gómez and Sebastián Korda qualified for the main draw in Paris for the first time. Both parents, 1990 Roland Garros champion Andrés Gómez and 1998 Australian Open winner Petr Korda, are Grand Slam champions. There are 31 players making their debut in the main draw at Roland Garros. Read feature
8) Zverev in Paris: Before this year, Alexander Zverev’s best Grand Slam results came at Roland Garros. The German star has reached consecutive quarter-finals in the clay Major. Five of his eight tournament wins during that span came in five sets. Zverev, who did not play on clay before Roland Garros, will be as confident as ever after reaching his first Grand Slam final at the US Open. His coach, David Ferrer, is with him in Paris.
9) Hamburg finalists fit: Andrey Rublev plays Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final of the European Open in Hamburg on Sunday, giving them confidence before Roland Garros. Like compatriot Medvedev, Rublev is seeking his first main draw victory at Roland Garros. His only previous main draw appearance at the tournament was in 2017, when he lost a three-hour, 30-minute five-set game against Diego Schwartzman. The Russian ranks second on the ATP Tour in wins this season (24), behind only Djokovic. The 22-year-old is one of four players (also Djokovic, Garin, Monfils) to have lifted multiple tour-level trophies in 2020.
Tsitsipas played one of the best matches of 2019 in the fourth round at Roland Garros. The Greek star came up short in a five-hour, nine-minute marathon against three-time Major League winner Stan Wawrinka. Tsitsipas is the fifth seed this year.
10) Will the Germans hold back? Defending doubles champions Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies will try to retain their title in Paris. Other former Roland Garros doubles starters on the field include Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut, Pablo Cuevas and Feliciano López (who won with different partners), Marcelo Melo, Ivan Dodig and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
