The first round of Roland Garros has begun and I’ve yet to give my predictions for the Mens Singles.
All matches played so far have no effect on my forecast which features Rafa Nadal, to nobody’s surprise.
Nadal is the top seed and faces no real challenge until the third round where crowds will cheer on Frenchman Richard Gasquet, but it isn’t actually a challenge - Gasquet has only beaten Nadal once from 16 attempts and that was the first time they met, in 2003, in a Challenger event as teenagers.
Jack Sock is seeded to meet Rafa in the round of sixteen, but his form has been terrible this year and he is no guarantee to reach that far.
Denis Shapovalov, the Canadian young gun, is my tip to be Nadal’s fourth victim.
Kevin Anderson will most likely be in the quarter final, and that’s where he would be exiting at the hands of the clay king.
Diego Schwartzman and Philipp Kohlschreiber are threats to Anderson, but not to Nadal.
Juan Martin del Potro or Marin Cilic should be the semi finalist to compete with Nadal.
The bottom half of the draw includes the happiest group of players, as they won’t need to see Nadal until the final.
Grigor Dimitrov is seeded number four, and has four Spanish players in his quarter. Already, Grigor has won his way into the second round and he won’t face one of those four until the fourth round. However, that won’t happen if Novak Djokovic has his say. The 2016 champion could have a third round match with Roberto Bautista Agut and I believe Novak’s form in Rome will carry over to Paris.
Djokovic should not only beat Dimitrov, but also David Goffin in the quarter final.
His semi final opponent will be either Dominic Thiem or Sascha Zverev, both who should ease into a quarter final battle. Thiem defeated Nadal in a Monte Carlo quarter final, but was beaten in the final by Zverev.
2015 Roland Garros champion Stan Wawrinka is in this quarter, but his form is poor at present.
Zverev has a poor Grand Slam record, his best effort a fourth round at Wimbledon last year.
His Roland Garros record is third round in 2016 and first round in 2017.
Thiem, by contrast, has made two semi finals at Grand Slam level, both at Roland Garros, and both in the past two years.
Dominic Thiem and Novak Djokovic to meet in a semi final, which Thiem will win
Rafa Nadal will defeat Juan Martin del Potro in the other semi final and also overcome Thiem to win an eleventh title on the Paris red clay.
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