The interest ahead of the French Open 2019 has certainly been raised. Recent results have seen Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal take major clay court titles. That has only made their positions stronger at the head of the betting market for Roland Garros 2019. The action in the French capital starts on May 27th, delivering two weeks of Grand Slam tennis action.
Nadal back in peak form ahead of Roland Garros
Of course, it is Rafael Nadal who has been the dominant force in the modern era at the French Open. The Spaniard will be heading back to the clay Parisian courts as the reigning champion. He has won it for the last two years and his victory over Dominic Thiem in last season’s final saw Nadal claim the title for a record 11th time.
The Spaniard keeps on pushing the envelope at the event. He is even money with leading bookmakers to win this year’s edition as well. 2019 has been a disjointed campaign from him, as he has had to work his way back to full fitness following an injury. It means that he hasn’t been the usual all-conquering presence during the clay swing of the season.
But he ended his title-less campaign by beating Novak Djokovic in the final of the Italian Open recently. That was just the culmination of some rising (and potentially ominous) form from him on his comeback. So maybe he has just got it all together to peak at the right time for another assault on the French Open title. Before his win at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, he had reached the semifinals of the Mutua Madrid Open, a Masters 1000 event just like Rome.
Djokovic seeks to make more history
Djokovic was the winner of the Madrid Open recently. That was a big step up in form for him. He hasn’t been anywhere near his best this season, the Serbian having had to deal with fitness and form problems of his own. But the big players know how to manage schedules and how to get timing right. He got it perfect at the start of the year, winning the Australian Open. Djokovic’s sole French Open title happened in 2016. That was a momentous title for him too.
Not only had he lost three previous French Open Finals, but it completed a career Slam for him. It meant that he had won all four Grand Slam titles throughout his career. It wasn’t just that though, it was his fourth Grand Slam title in a row. Djokovic’s success at Roland Garros in 2016 mean that he held all four of the major titles at the same time. The correlation to 2019 is that he is in exactly the same position.
He holds the Wimbledon, US Open and this year’s Australian Open title. Leading bookmakers have Djokovic at 9/4 to land this season’s French Open title. The fact that he has a chance to hold all four titles at the same time for the second time is remarkable. Just to put it into context, Roger Federer has never managed to pull off the feat. In fact in 2016, Djokovic became just the third man in history to hold all Slam titles at once.
Thiem the one most like to upset the big guns
The only other man heading into the men’s draw for the French Open 2019 in single figures is Dominic Thiem. The Austrian has collected two titles this season and he has risen to number four in the world. His first 2019 title was in beating Roger Federer in the final of Indian Wells. Thiem followed it up with a victory over Daniil Medvedev in Barcelona, notably on clay.
With a run to the semifinals of the Mutua Madrid Open, where he was beaten in two extremely tight sets by Djokovic, Thiem again showed his rising threat in beating Roger Federer in the quarterfinals. There was another notable result by Thiem this season. That was a semifinal victory over Rafael Nadal in Barcelona, on his way to lifting the title.
Federer nothing more than an outside chance?
What of Federer? The Swiss legend won his sole French Open title back in 2009 and has skipped the last three editions of the event. That is primarily because of saving himself for the hard court swing of the season later in the year. In his last three Grand Slam appearances, Federer’s best effort was a quarter-final at Wimbledon last year.
The other two, appearances at the US Open and the 2019 Australian Open, saw Federer bow out at the fourth round in each. For the man who has achieved so much in the sport, the French Open is, by a long way, the least successful of the Slams for him. So that, and with little form on clay this season, sees Federer as a big 18/1 outsider with leading bookmakers.
In the last fourteen editions of the French Open, only four different men have won it. There has been the sheer dominance of Nadal of course, with his astounding eleven wins. That has left Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka with just the one win each in that sequence.
That is the weight of history which the rest of the field has to go up against. Remarkably again, it could be a case of two-men versus the field.
