“He needed this. He wanted this and he had to play his best tennis today to get it.” This is what former world No. 1 Lindsay Davenport said on Tennis Channel as Rafael Nadal finally won his first clay-court title of the year in Rome, defeating world No. 1 Novak Djokovic 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 in the final.
“This was a statement week for Rafa,” she said and there is nothing more true for the 11-time French Open champion as he works to win a 12th title at Roland Garros. Nadal suffered through the most paltry clay court season of his career, failing to advance past the semifinals in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Madrid. Doubts as to whether the soon-to-be 33-year-old Spaniard would continue to his clay-court dominance persisted until his important win over Djokovic, the reigning Wimbledon, U.S. and Australian Open champion, who beat him by a one-sided margin in Melbourne in January.
Djokovic, the winner in Madrid earlier this month, is still be considered the slight favorite in Paris as he looks to hold all four major singles titles at the same time for the second time in his career, something only done one time in men’s tennis, by the one-and-only Rod Laver, who won calendar-year Grand Slams in 1962 and 1969.
Dominic Thiem, last year’s beaten finalist in Paris, stands on more sturdy feet this year entering Roland Garros and is a trendy tennis betting choice entering the season’s second major championship. He nearly beat Nadal in a U.S. Open epic last September, and beating Roger Federer in the Indian Wells final. He also registered an impressive win over Nadal in Barcelona – beating him in a stadium that is named after him!
Roger Federer will be playing in Paris for the first time in two years and a lot of attention will be focusing on the 2009 French singles champion. Most insiders do not think he can get through the Nadal, Djokovic wall in Paris, which will allow Federer to play more freely without extra pressure, which could result in some surprise overachieving results for the Swiss maestro. Federer won his 101st career title in Miami earlier this season and he could surprisingly add No. 102 in Paris this coming fortnight.
