French Open June 7th, Tips and Previews

The fourth round at Roland Garros will see a rematch of last year’s quarterfinal, pitting 13-time champion Rafael Nadal against the fast-rising youngster Jannik Sinner.

Nadal, who came into this year’s tournament on the back of title runs in Barcelona and Rome, has made a good start to his Paris campaign. The Spaniard has looked solid in his wins over the likes of Richard Gasquet and Cameron Norrie, and is yet to drop a set this week.

He arguably hasn’t even got out of second gear. Having said that he rarely does until the business end of this tournament. It’s his baby and he is just about unbeatable on the dirt.

But the clay court king is set to face his biggest test yet, as he would have to defuse Sinner’s firepower and explosiveness. Sinner’s power seems to defy the slow clay court play and fizz through and hurry opponents.

Sinner on his part has had a mixed season on clay this year. He made a strong start with a semifinal run in Barcelona before his momentum fizzled and then dropped away completely over the next few weeks as he suffered a spate of early exits.

But Sinner has come good and got back on track in his first few matches in Paris. After saving a match point against Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the first round, the 19-year-old will now be looking to secure a quarterfinal spot for the second year in a row.

Rafael Nadal leads Sinner head-to-head by a margin of 2-0. Nadal secured straight-sets wins over his younger opponent at last year’s Roland Garros and at Rome earlier this year.

Hard if not impossible to see that changing here.

Novak Djokovic continues his run in his bid for his 2nd French Open title and 19th Grand Slam as he takes on Lorenzo Musetti in the 4th-round. The Serbian’s victory over Ricardas Berankis was his 3rd successive straight-set win that saw him qualify for the 4th round, wrapping up the match 6-1, 6-4, 6-1.

Djokovic extended his French Open record to 81-15 with his 3rd round win and will be looking to make his 4th round victory an easy affair against the teenager Musetti. The more energy “The Joker” can save now the better off he will be.

Musetti continues his dream debut at his maiden Grand Slam as he reaches the 4th round of the French Open 2021 after a crunchy 5-setter win against Italian counterpart Marco Cecchinato in just over 3 hours.

He has been a revelation this tournament and now gets to test himself against arguably the best in the world.

Musetti has played a long season on Clay both on Challenger and ATP tours in preparation for Roland Garros. 

He will come in confident looking to cause the biggest upset of the tournament but it won’t be an easy affair against the rampant Serbian who is yet to drop a set at the French Open 2021.

Hard to see Musetti getting close to winning this one and I’m backing Djokovic to get through without dropping a set yet again. 

A semifinalist at the French Open in 2020, Diego Schwartzman had a poor clay-court season in 2021. He hasn’t dropped a set at Roland Garros so far but could well find himself shocked by the big-serving, powerful Jan-Lennard Struff, who is playing great tennis. 

The duo have split their two previous meetings which doesn’t give me a lot to go off but the form of Schwartzman last year has me believing he can replicate something similar. Or at the very least get past this matchup.

Schwartzman beat Struff 6-3, 6-0 in their only clay-court meeting at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters in 2017 which is good reading for this clash. Struff was good last time out when he beat rising star Carlos Alacaraz. 

But I think Schwartzman will be too good on this occasion.