That opener comes against Radek Stepanek on Monday, but two of the seven British players in the singles draw are in action on Sunday.
Advertisement
Of course draws often don’t play out as expected and upsets are common.
This was evident on Saturday when, before starting his practice, he goofed around wearing a beret as he played the traditional French game called “petanque” – albeit with yellow tennis balls instead of those heavy metallic ones – and jokingly played around with a violin.
He becomes the second star to withdraw from the men’s tournament after Roger Federer ruled himself out with a back problem Thursday.
Murray, a three-time semifinalist at Roland Garros, faces Czech qualifier Radek Stepanek in the first round. It was her first win against a top 10 player since 2014.
He was knocked out in the second round of the Madrid Open earlier this month, then lost his first round match at the Italian Open, but had been runner-up at the Monte Carlo Masters in April. In the fourth round, the man many view as the near-future of the sport, Austrian Dominic Thiem likely awaits Nadal.
The draw is Friday, but Nadal can not face Djokovic in the quarterfinals, which was a possibility if Federer had stayed in the tournament and forced Nadal to be the No. 5 seed in the event. There is literally nary a threat to the world No. 1 until that possible semifinal against Nadal. He will fight like it’s his last stand, and that will make him so unsafe against anyone he faces. It’d doubtful that Djokovic would lose any focus if he were to stake through until the semifinals; but it is instructive to recall that in 2011, when he was in the midst of a historic first half of the season, Djokovic had extra days off and wound up losing to Federer in the semifinals in the French.
The third-ranked Federer, who has 88 career titles, won the French Open in 2009 – the only time he has won the tournament at Roland Garros. Nadal has been paired with big-serving Australian Sam Groth.
Wawrinka enters the tournament as a legitimate dark horse. With Wawrinka’s baffling ability to play alternately brilliantly and inconsistent, this is the section of the draw where lower ranked players have the best shot of emerging.
Defending champion Stan Wawrinka (No. 3 seed) is on the other side of the bracket with former Wimbledon champion Andy Murray (No. 2 seed). This has the potential of being the type of draining, brutal encounter which could take a toll on one of these players. He also intends to compete at the Rio Olympics in August.
When he was accumulating his nine titles, I don’t think anybody really believed they could beat him.
Advertisement
‘My expectations are high, the ones of the people too, they know this is the only Grand Slam I have not won, ‘ Novak Djokovic does not hide that there will be much pressure on him over the next two weeks that could see him finally complete the career Grand Slam.
