Roland Garros, with no Rafael Nadal to roll
Nadal is out injured and fellow 22-time Grand Slam winner Djokovic arrives in less than top form with Carlos Alcaraz the top seed for the year’s second Major
“Roland Garros will always be Roland Garros,” Rafael Nadal, announcing his withdrawal from this year’s French Open, said, “with or without me, without a doubt.”
Even by Nadal’s humble standards, that's a bit of a stretch. It can’t be Roland Garros if the mere sight of the steely 14-time champion in person and in sculpture doesn’t intimidate opponents; if the Spaniard doesn’t bite the Musketeers’ Cup and grind his rivals into the red dirt more often than not; if the king of clay doesn’t touch down in his kingdom year after year since he first set foot and began his reign in 2005 that has seen only some blips.
Indeed, this will be a Roland Garros unlike any other in close to two decades. Not just because Nadal, the defending champion who has five of the last six titles there, is out injured, but also the only other active member of the Big Three — which has swept all but three Grand Slams since 2017 — isn’t quite the hands-down favourite.
Novak Djokovic, lest we forget, is tied with Nadal on 22 Majors. Any other time, talk of the Serb with a shot at going clear in the all-time Grand Slam men’s singles winners list would hit a crescendo in a Slam build-up. The 36-year-old, however, comes into this French Open with doubts swirling around his form and fitness after scaling the summit Down Under for the 10th time.
Djokovic, down to third in the world ranking and French Open seeding, has not won a title since the Australian Open. His unvaccinated status kept him away from Indian Wells and Miami and an elbow injury from the Madrid Masters on clay. He returned to find little joy on the European clay swing, losing in the Round of 16 of the ATP 1000 Monte Carlo and the quarter-finals of ATP 250 Banja Luka and the Rome Masters.
The last time Djokovic played the French Open bereft of the feel of a tournament victory on clay was five years ago, exiting in the quarter-finals of that 2018 edition. But the Serb, twice a champion in Paris, including once by going past Nadal, can activate a different mode in best-of-five Slams, favourite or not.
That tag, for a change in this Big Three era, rests on the shoulders of a Spaniard fresh out of his teens. Two days after celebrating his 20th birthday earlier this month, Alcaraz lifted the Madrid Masters crown. That was his third clay title this season — he also won in Barcelona last month and Buenos Aires in February — and fourth overall, raking up a 30-3 win-loss record after missing the Australian Open with a hamstring injury. In his first Slam, therefore, since turning a first-time champion and tennis' newest poster boy at last year's US Open, Alcaraz finds himself as the No. 1 seed at the biggest stage for the first time.
“It's still crazy to see myself top seed in a Grand Slam,” Alcaraz said in Paris, where he made the quarter-finals last year in his best finish thus far. “It is something that I work for to be there. Yeah, I'm really happy to be No. 1 seed here.”
Right behind him is Daniil Medvedev, the world No. 2 hard-court specialist who has embraced clay and the Rome title this year. The in-form Russian has won a trophy more than Alcaraz this season, and should he find his feet on the Parisian clay, could well prove a handful on his least fruitful surface.
Right behind them are a pack of youngsters hoping to leave a mark on this unique French Open. World No. 4 Casper Ruud and No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas have had a quiet season so far but know what it takes to play the final in Paris. Denmark's Holger Rune, another 20-year-old star on the horizon, entered the final in Rome and Monte Carlo and crossed the line in Munich last month. The world No. 6 lost the Monte Carlo title to Andrey Rublev, the seventh-ranked Russian also in the mix of probable French Open contenders.
When was the last time that there were so many names tossed around in it? This is a Nadal-less Roland Garros, without a doubt.