The clay season is on and the second Grand Slam of the season is here with 11-time winner and defending Champion, Rafael Nadal taking centre stage. Building up to the Slam, the Spaniard performed exceptionally well in the Rome Masters as he beat his rival Novak Djokovic in the Final to win his 9th Rome Masters title.
With that victory, Rafa looks the favourite once again to conquer Paris for an unprecedented 12th time in his illustrious career. Chasing Roger Federer’s 20 slam titles, a win for Rafa will put him much closer to the Swiss legend with his 18th slam.
Rafa will begin his Roland Garros campaign against a qualifier whereas Novak Djokovic will face Hubert Hurkacz who was a part of Tata Open Maharashtra 2019. If Novak wins the French Open, he will achieve a unique feat of holding all the Grand Slam titles at the same time after he won the Australian Open earlier this year.
Roger Federer, who last won the tournament back in 2009 will be up against Italy’s L.Sonego. Andy Murray will miss out on the Grand Slam as he aims to return to full fitness to play the Wimbledon at home.
Tata Open Maharashtra 2019 Champion, Kevin Anderson will miss the entire clay season along with Roland Garros 2019 due to an injury. French players Gilles Simon and Benoit Paire will face a qualifier and M. Copil respectively. Giant serving Croatian and Tata Open Maharashtra 2019 runner-up, Ivo Karlovic will have to battle it out against Spaniard, Feliciano Lopez.
Young prodigy, Felix Auger-Aliassime has been in good form and will look to make a statement after making it to the main draw. Antoine Hoang will also feature in the main-draw. Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri and Moldovan Radu Albot will enter the main-draw along with Serbia’s Laslo Djere facing Spain’s A. Ramos-Vinolas.
Prajnesh Gunneswaran will be the only Indian to play in the Men’s Singles category. He will face Bolivian Hugo Dellien in the first round as Ramkumar Ramanathan crashed out in the qualifiers. It will be a good opportunity to Prajnesh to battle it out against the top names in the world.
On the Doubles front, India’s top ranked Doubles player, Rohan Bopanna will pair up with Marius Copil. After reaching the final of the Bavarian International a couple of weeks back, Divij Sharan will continue his pairing with Marcelo Demoliner. 4-time French Open Champion Leander Paes will also continue to pair up with the eccentric Frenchman Benoit Paire. The pair have made two semi-final appearances in the past few months. Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan will be aiming for his first main draw win as he has signed up with Germany’s Mischa Zverev.
