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Read and Know More About French Open 2018 Live- With the Roland Garros 2018 set to kick off on Sunday in Paris, SI's tennis experts and writers Jon Wertheim, Stanley Kay, Jamie Lisanti and Daniel Rapaport discuss this year’s top storylines and predict the winners. WHAT DID THE CLAY COURT LEAD-UP TOURNAMENTS TEACH YOU?
Jon Wertheim: Rafael Nadal is super awesome at claycourt tennis. (But beatable, under the right circumstances.) Alexander Zverev deserves his No. 2 seeding (but still needs to prove himself in a best-of-five format.) Maria Sharapova and Novak Djokovic have life in them yet (but neither is in position to add to their haul of French Open titles.) The women’s field is less “wide open” than it is a gaping abyss that would swallow up Evel Knievel. (But that makes it fun….the unpredictability, that is. Not the risk posed to 1970s made-for-tv daredevils.)
Stanley Kay: Rafael Nadal is a decent clay court player, eh? Just when you think the Spaniard can’t wow us any further on his best surface, he reels off 50 straight sets on dirt. Like last year, Dominic Thiem managed to upset Nadal ahead of the French Open—the Austrian was responsible for ending Nadal’s record set streak—but recall that Nadal ended up thrashing Them in the 2017 Roland Garros semifinals. So don’t get too excited about Thiem’s chances. Thiem and Sascha Zverev both put together nice clay court seasons, but neither appears a worthy rival to Rafa—at least not yet. Meanwhile, stop me if you’ve heard this before:
The women’s field is again pretty open. The last six majors have seen six different female champions, so no surprise there. Elina Svitolina seems to be peaking at the right time, drubbing Simona Halep in the Rome final, but Halep remains a deserving favorite at Roland Garros. The Romanian, a finalist last year, is the world No. 1 for a reason: she’s consistently good. Halep hasn’t won a tournament since the first week of the year, but she’s avoiding first-round defeats. Jamie Lisanti: I don’t think I needed a refresher lesson on this, but here’s one thing I learned in the last month of play on the clay: Rafael Nadal reigns supreme. Per usual, the Spaniard was dominant on the dirt in the run-up to Roland Garros, capturing trophies in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome to solidify fourth place on the Open Era titles list with 78.
On top of that, he’ll step foot in Paris with the World No. 1 ranking in his grasp once again. The recent tournaments emphasized Nadal’s stranglehold and demonstrated how players like Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev are capable of challenging, but not conquering, the king. Here’s a copy-and-paste from last year: Elina Svitolina is on fire right now. In 2017, the 23-year-old Ukrainian beat Karolina Pliskova, Garbine Muguruza and Simona Halep en route to the title in Rome. (And then proceeded to fall 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-0 to the Romanian in the French Open quarterfinals.) This year, Svitolina once again captured the Italian Open crown, emphatically beating World No. 1 Halep 6-0, 6-4. So what will happen at the French Open this year? My gut tells me Svitolina will once again capitulate before the semifinals at Roland Garros in 2018. And here’s one more takeaway: Injuries are still dominating tennis. Andy Murray, Milos Raonic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will all be missing in Paris. And you can likely add Juan Martin del Potro to that list, after he suffered a groin strain in Rome. Others are likely to join that group by the time the draw is out. What should players takeaway from these absences? Staying healthy is key, of course, but recovering from those ailments is nearly just as important.Daniel Rapaport: First and foremost, that 31-year-old Rafa Nadal is still virtually unbeatable on the dirt. Apart from the one loss to Dominic Thiem in Madrid, Rafa looked as healthy, motivated and comfortable on the clay as we’ve ever seen him. Anything short of a comfortable run to his 11th title in Paris would genuinely surprise me.
That being said, Alexander Zverev is not far at all from breaking through in a major, and Roland Garros could well be the site of his first big breakthrough. His game is ready. On the women’s side, there isn’t anyone that even resembles a favorite. There are 20 women who could legitimately hoist the trophy. One other thing: I miss the Big Four. That might not be a popular take in the tennis world, but there was something distinctly special about entering majors wondering which of the titans (refresher: Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Murray) would reign supreme. This clay-court season, with Fed and Murray out and Novak a shell of himself, was the first time it seemed absolutely certain that those four-headed domination days are over. WHICH QUALIFIER/PLAYER COMPLETELY OFF THE RADAR DO YOU SEE AS A POTENTIAL DARK HORSE FOR THIS YEAR? JW: With an early loss in Rome, Djokovic, remarkably, might not have been seeded. Which would have made answering this easy. As it stands, I’d say Stefanos Tsitsipas, tennis’ Greek Freak (who doesn’t turn 20 until August.) Borna Coric is better than his No. 41 ranking. Nicolas Jarry of Chile is rising in the ranks, as is Frances Tiafoe, for a gratuitous American reference. As for the women, a year after an unseeded player won the title….Petra Martic is a veteran who plays her best at Majors. Maria Sakkari is the Greek freakette.
Svetlana Kuznetsova is a former champ. Lucie Safarova, a former finalist is healthy again. SK: How about Maria Sharapova? After losing in the first round in Stuttgart, she reached the quarterfinals in Madrid and the semifinals of Rome, where she beat Jelena Ostapenko in a thrilling three-set quarterfinal. On the men’s side, Stefanos Tsitsipas—despite having yet to win a match at a Slam—seems ready for a major breakthrough, especially after reaching finals in Barcelona and Portugal. JL: Kiki Bertens had a good run at the Madrid Open, where she reached the final before losing to Petra Kvitova. In the absence of his countryman Milos Raonic, Candian Denis Shapovalov could string together a few matches in the first week at the French Open. How about another 19-year-old? Stefanos Tsitsipas showed promise in Barcelona. How about a Romanian not named Simona Halep? Meet 30-year-old Mihaela Buzarnescu. DR: Going to go wayyyyy out on a limb here, because why not? Malek Jaziri can make a run into the second week given the right draw (which, at the French, simply means avoiding Rafa). The 34-year-old Tunisian has had a quietly strong clay season, and he’ll be the latest chapter in this ballad of Tennis Players Over 30.
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