Eye of the Coach #73: With Nadal's injury and Djokovic's problems, Roland-Garros is as open as it can be

Tennis Majors

In episode 71 of Eye of the Coach, released just before the start of the clay court season, Patrick Mouratoglou explained that he thought the 2023 French Open was wide open due to the long absence of Rafael Nadal. A few weeks on, after several tournaments played on clay, the situation has changed a little.  While the defending champion is still absent and an uncertain starter at Roland-Garros, his biggest rival Novak Djokovic is suffering from a right elbow injury and has not shown any certainty on the surface in his outings in Monte-Carlo and Banja Luka. With Andrey Rublev winning in Monte Carlo, Carlos Alcaraz in Barcelona and Holger Rune in Munich, there are plenty of contenders for the title at Roland Garros!  All in all, it’s a situation that makes Patrick Mouratoglou say in the latest episode of Eye of the Coach that Roland-Garros is even more open than he thought a few weeks ago.  BEST MOMENTS FROM EYE OF THE COACH #70 0’25: The problems of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, arguably the two best players of all time and the ones who usually dominate on clay, make the situation even more open for Roland Garros. 0’55”: Three players have broken away since the start of the clay court season, Carlos Alcaraz, Holger Rune and Andrey Rublev. 1’10”: There are still two clay-court Masters 1000 tournaments to come, Madrid and Rome, which will provide even more information before we get to Paris. 1’20”: There will be no surprises at Roland Garros. For Patrick Mouratoglou, one player will rise to power in Madrid and/or Rome until Paris.

Transcript

00:00 as open as it can be. We can have so much surprises, we can have guys who emerge.

00:04 The situation is even more open than I could think of it a few weeks ago.

00:10 A few weeks ago I spoke about the clay season and the fact that it probably wouldn't be

00:17 much more open than ever. What happened in the last week just confirmed it and probably

00:23 makes it even louder. The fact that Novak for the moment is not finding his tennis,

00:28 he's a little bit injured. The fact that Rapha is now injured for a long time and was supposed

00:32 to come back to play this clay court tournament before Rangaros and he's not able to play them,

00:36 puts the two biggest players, the two best probably of all times and the ones who are

00:41 dominating so much the clay, puts those players in a very strange and unique situation and it

00:47 opens the field to many others. Now the two Masters 1000 on clay will give us so much more

00:52 information. We see that Carlos Alcaraz is playing an incredible tennis at the moment.

00:58 Holger Rune also played great on clay, so has Andre Reblef. But we still have two Masters 1000

01:05 coming up on clay and we will see who are the most dangerous players on the surface

01:10 leading to this Rangaros. So that's why first it's as open as it can be, even though Carlos

01:16 is extremely impressive, but it's still open. Those two events are extremely important. First

01:21 of all because I don't believe that someone will not play well in these two events and certainly

01:26 come to Rangaros and reach the semis or the final. I think it's going to be a build-up,

01:30 so we have to follow that build-up and we'll know much more in a few weeks.

01:35 [Music]

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