The French Open began today and the complete focus will be on the man who has owned this championship for nearly two decades competing here for possibly the final time. Rafael Nadal has captured 14 titles on the red clay of Paris since 2005 but injuries have blighted the two years since his most recent triumph in 2022.
The Spaniard announced in May last year that 2024 is likely to be his last season on tour thus making this possibly the last time he will ever compete in a tournament that he has only lost at on 3 occasions.
Nadal did not rule out a return though stating on Saturday: “In terms if that’s going to be my last Roland Garros, it’s a long answer, but I think I need to answer that, because we’re going to avoid future questions since the beginning – so I’m going to do it.
“As I said, it’s a big, big chance that it’s going to be my last Roland Garros, but if I have to tell you it’s 100 per cent my last Roland Garros, sorry, but I will not, because I cannot predict what’s going on.
“I hope you understand.”
Nadal opens up against 4th seed and recent Italian Open Champion Alexander Zverev on Monday.
The German is considered by many to be the likely favourite for the title due to his recent record at the French Open and the injury concerns and lack of form of some of the other prominent players but the 14-time champion would have been the last player he would want to have opened his campaign against.
The last time the pair met at the French Open in the 2022 semi-finals, Zverev retired with an ankle injury with the pair about to begin a second-set tiebreak in a match that was already over three hours old.
It was the second of three straight last-four exits for the German who will aim to go two better this year.
Nadal has not won a title since the 2022 French Open and will be looking to emulate what Pete Sampras did at the 2002 US Open when the American won his last major in his last tournament, over two years since his previous title which had also been a Grand Slam.
It is a long shot but if anyone could put it off, it has to be the ‘King of Clay.
Whilst Nadal saying au revoir is the headline story, it isn’t the only one that will have tennis fans glued to their screens over the next two weeks.
1. Wide-open Men’s Draw
Nadal’s dominance of the tournament has often made the discussion of who will win the tournament a moot point with most of the time, it being who will lose to him in the final?
But this year, it feels for the first time at least since the Spaniard’s debut, there is no clear favourite for the men’s title.
Defending Champion Novak Djokovic would have been in previous years, the odd-son favourite but the Serb has suffered an alarming slump of form in 2024 akin to what happened after when he first won in 2016 to become the first man since 1969 to hold all four majors at the same time, to such an extent that he didn’t even finish the year ranked World Number One.
It is likely that after a triumphant 2023, Djokovic will not leave Paris this year still at the top of the World Rankings.
He is still not to reach a final this year, was taken apart by Jannik Sinner at the Australian Open and has since parted company with his coach Goran Ivanisevic.
You wouldn’t completely right him off as he came to Roland Garros last year in not the best of form but this year, it seems to be even worse.
However, he is not the only one to come to the French Open with concerns.
Sinner began the year in incredible form, winning the Australian Open for his first major title as part of a career-best 19-match winning streak, following on from the Davis Cup success at the back end of last year.
His streak was snapped by Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals in Indian Wells but bounced back to win Miami that improved his season record to 22-1 heading into the clay-court swing.
However, he suffered a seeming tweak in his knee in his semi-final loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas in Monte-Carlo and withdrew from Madrid and Rome with a hip injury so whether or not he can properly contend will be something to keep an eye on.
The fact that no man in the Open Era has also won the major immediately following his maiden slam triumph is also against him even though he is likely to leave the tournament as World Number 1 which will give him confidence over the next two weeks.
Alcaraz was often considered to be the ‘heir apparent’ to Nadal at the French Open but success in Paris has so far alluded him.
His Wimbledon triumph last year was thought to be the beginning of an era of dominance for the young Spaniard who had also captured the 2022 US Open becoming the youngest ATP World Number 1.
However, he has only won one tournament since which was in Indian Wells and has missed almost the entirety of the European Clay-Court swing with a forearm injury.
That said, his game is still great for the red dirt and he will want to complete the third leg of the Career Grand Slam at just 21 which is just a testament to how great he has been already.
Other contenders include Tsitispas, Casper Rudd who was runner-up the last two years, Daniil Medvedev, Holger Rune and Audrey Rublev but all come with question marks into this event.
Tsitispas has struggled in Grand Slams since his 2023 Australian Open Final appearance and with a clear weakness on the backhand side, will it hold out over two weeks at the French Open.
Rudd has reached three Grand Slam finals and has won the most matches on clay since 2020 but has not reached the Quarter-Finals at any other major tournament.
Medvedev has only got past the first round in Paris twice in seven attempts, Rune has struggled for form since Wimbledon last year and Rublev is 0-10 in Grand Slam Quarter-Finals.
The French Open is renowned for producing surprise winners such as Albert Costa in 2002, Gaston Gaudio in 2004 and to a lesser extent Stan Wawrinka in 2015.
Maybe 2024 will be the same?
2. Can anyone prevent an Iga hat trick?
The Women’s tournament is the exact opposite with Iga Świątek the biggest-favourite since Justine Henin in 2007 to capture a third straight French Open crown and fourth in five years.
The Pole who turns 23 in the tournament has already captured four titles this year including back-to-back successes in Madrid and Rome heading into Paris.
Swiatek said: “Honestly, I love this place and I’m always excited to come back.
“It feels like home.”
Karolina Muchová threatened a famous upset in last year’s final before eventually falling 6-4 in the third which was the only set Świątek lost in the tournament, the same number as in 2022.
The Pole has only lost 2 matches in Paris in her career and will be seeking to claim her 5th major title over the next two weeks and no one seems to stop her.
Aryna Sabalenka was beaten by Świątek in both Madrid and Paris and will head to Paris seeking her third Grand Slam title after successfully defending her Australian Open title in January.
Sabalenka did briefly break Świątek’s hold on the WTA Number 1 Ranking after the US Open but clay is not her best surface and she did have a collapse in the semi-finals against Muchová last year when she blew a match point at 5-2 up in the third set before losing 7-5.
She has reached the last four at the last six major tournaments so she will be hotly tipped to well in Paris this fortnight.
Elena Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon Champion has beaten Świątek four out of the last five times that they have played including in Stuttgart this year but has often struggled with illness in the past year which saw her withdraw early last year.
US Open Champion Coco Gauff reached the final here in 2022 but has lost 10 out of her 11 matches with Świątek and with the pair set to meet in the semi-finals, it will be difficult to see that changing on the Pole’s favourite surface.
But anything can happen but it does have a feeling of Iga vs the field at Roland Garros this forenight.
3. Deja vu for Murray and Wawrinka as both possibly play at Roland Garros for the last time.
Nadal isn’t the only big name possibly playing the French Open for the last time.
2016 Runner-Up Andy Murray has also said that this is likely to be the final time he plays the French Open and he just so happens to play the man he played in his last two matches here.
39-year-old Wawrinka will also be wondering if this is the last time he will play the French Open, a tournament he won both the junior (2003) and men’s (2015) titles during his career.
The pair met in both 2016 and 2017 in the semi-finals but it was the latter of those two encounters that had a profound effect on both of them as neither were quite the same again, particularly Murray has it started the hip injury that he never really recovered from.
Murray said on that match: “I remember during the fifth set, really feeling like I was unable to move.
“I couldn’t sleep that night.
“I remember getting up, lying on the sofa in loads of pain.
“My hip never recovered – it was a shame, yeah.”
Wawrinka won that match but was well beaten by Nadal in the final and struggled with a knee injury after that.
Murray didn’t play in the French Open where he faced Wawrinka again and was thrashed 6-1, 6-3, 6-2.
Murray hasn’t played the French Open since but when asked about the Scot’s career as a whole, Wawrinka said: “He is way ahead of me [in career achievements].
“For me, he was part of the Big Four Era [with Nadal, Djokovic and Roger Federer].
“From 18 years old until 30 he was always fighting with the Big Three, he was always there.
“Let’s put it that way, he won ‘only’ three because all the other [players] were taking but he was always in the final, he was always winning a lot.
“For me, his career is nothing compared to mine – he’s way ahead, he won many more titles, things than me, and his level was close to the Big Three for 10 years.”
Whether this is the last time, the pair will play the French Open or not, it is a reminder that tennis careers are just one match from being seriously altered.
Both men suffered in that semi-final seven years ago and neither has fully recovered.
But with both having won 3 majors in the era they were playing in, they are both truly among the greatest to have played the game.
Image Credit: Deposit Photos
