The French Open begins Sunday, and although 14-time champion Rafael Nadal and defending champion Novak Djokovic are each taking part in, questions abound on whether or not both will problem for the title. On the ladies’s facet, Iga Swiatek has been wanting unstoppable, however can she shut the deal? We requested our consultants to weigh in.
Who will win the boys’s singles title?
Pam Shriver: Rafa Nadal. I’m choosing the 14-time champion as a result of for another time I can decide the best clay-court participant in historical past, and since there are too many query marks surrounding the actual favorites on the boys’s facet. Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Djokovic all have too many inquiries to really feel comfy choosing any of them.
Do I actually assume Nadal can win his fifteenth Roland Garros title? No, however Nadal for 20 years has finished numerous issues I assumed not doable. Even with an impossibly arduous first-round match versus Alexander Zverev, I nonetheless have to jot down in Nadal’s title another time as my winner. Nadal’s first-round opponent might be your actual favourite on paper, earlier than the draw begins.
Brad Gilbert: Looks like the boys’s area, for the primary time in 20 years, may be very open, and it is extraordinarily troublesome to choose a winner, whereas in previous years, Nadal has completely dominated. Djokovic hasn’t gained a event in 2024 thus far and would usually be the overwhelming favourite at each Slam. Add within the harm considerations for Sinner and Alcaraz, who’re hopefully each wholesome now.
The truth that Nadal is unseeded is wild, as is the truth that he’s taking part in Zverev within the first spherical. I feel it will likely be two tournaments: The primary week, we’ll see what number of high seeds get by, after which a second-week event from there. There is perhaps good alternatives for Stefanos Tsitsipas, Casper Ruud and Zverev if he will get by Nadal. I might simply see one thing very unpredictable taking place 17 days from now.
Invoice Connelly: In case you’re Zverev, Tsitsipas, Ruud or Holger Rune, or anybody else hoping that the highest tier slips up sooner or later and provides you a shot at an precise Slam title, your odds is perhaps nearly as good proper now as they have been in fairly some time (or will likely be shifting ahead). Now’s your likelihood.
I am not choosing any of these guys, nevertheless. If Sinner hadn’t harm his hip, I would have stored driving that wave. As an alternative, I am going to give this Djokovic man a shot. I hear he is fairly good in best-of-five matches.
Tom Hamilton: This must be probably the most open area shortly. Sinner comes into this recovering from his hip harm, Nadal might but roll again the stone, Djokovic might find yourself sweeping the sphere, after which there’s Alcaraz, who’s recovering from an arm harm. And do not low cost the others like Zverev, Andrey Rublev, Rune and Ruud. So having comfortably sat on the fence, I’ll go along with Alcaraz — if he is match. If he isn’t 100%, then I feel Djokovic has an excellent likelihood, however it could possibly be Ruud’s flip as effectively, in his third try right here.
D’Arcy Maine: I do not assume I’ve ever had such a troublesome time predicting a males’s champion at a serious. There are such a lot of contenders — and maybe even extra questions on virtually all of them. Earlier than the draw got here out, I assumed Sinner had an honest likelihood, assuming his hip was at, or close to, 100%, however his path to the ultimate is perhaps an excessive amount of coming off that harm.
So, I am as a substitute going to choose Ruud, who has reached the Roland Garros remaining the previous two years. He gained the title in Barcelona this yr and reached the ultimate in Monte Carlo. He would wish to get previous Djokovic within the quarters, however he beat him in Monte Carlo for the primary time in six tries and now is aware of he can.
Who will win the ladies’s singles title?
Shriver: Swiatek will win her fourth Roland Garros. She is already beginning to be in comparison with Nadal by way of success in Paris, and given Swiatek gained each Madrid and Rome, she is the plain decide to win her fifth main. Swiatek’s idol is Nadal, subsequently it is satisfying to choose them each another time.
Connelly: ESPN BET has Swiatek listed because the betting favourite over the remainder of the sphere mixed. If she wins, she’ll have as many French Open titles at age 23 as Nadal, aka the best clay-courter ever. How on earth are you supposed to choose in opposition to that? I am unable to, anyway.
Hamilton: We’re within the passing of the baton stage — from one dominant power in Nadal to the subsequent clay-court champion: Swiatek. As gorgeous because the Madrid remaining was, the Rome remaining was ominous as to how good Swiatek may be. We’re beginning to see an exquisite rivalry shaping up right here between her and Aryna Sabalenka, however Swiatek cuts in a different way on clay. She finds her zone on this floor, blocking out any distractions and simply clocks into the next gear.
Her opponents will hope somebody finds an Elena Rybakina-type efficiency, just like when she overcame Swiatek within the semifinals at Stuttgart, however let’s face it, Swiatek is the participant to beat.
Maine: Swiatek. She had already proved she was the very best on this planet on clay, however she has separated herself even additional this season from the remainder of the sphere. She overcame a really tough check in opposition to Sabalenka within the distinctive Madrid remaining after which completely dismantled the world No. 2 within the Rome remaining two weeks later. Barring harm, I do not see anybody beating Swiatek — who appears to get increasingly more assured with each match she wins — at Roland Garros this yr.
