French Open – Men’s Winner
May 28 – June 10
For a while the French Open was the most likely of the Grand Slams to see a lower ranked champion and between 1993 and 2004 only two of the 12 titles were won by top-four seeds. That can be put down to a decade where clay-court specialists dominated at Roland Garros as only three other top-four seeds even made the final.
That all changed with the arrival of the greatest clay-courter of all time, Rafael Nadal, and the dominant periods of Roger Federer and then Novak Djokovic. That has resulted in 23 of the 26 finalists since 2005 being seeded in the top five, including six finals between the top two seeds in the last 12 years, and this year Nadal will be looking for an incredible 11th title here.
However, while Nadal comes in as an overwhelming favourite the Big Four are no longer a thing, certainly when it comes to this surface, as Federer has once again taken the spring off, while Novak Djokovic looks a pale imitation of the player who dominated the game in 2016 and Andy Murray is injured. With Stan Wawrinka struggling to win a match since his return from injury the youngsters Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev should be challenging Nadal for the title.