French Open Day 1 Preview: Three Must-See Matches

In the men’s draw, Rafael Nadal is the prohibitive favourite to win his mind-boggling 11th French Open title. Dominic Thiem, the only man to defeat Nadal on clay in the past two years, is in the other half of the draw. The bottom half of the men’s draw is stacked, with names like Thiem, Zverev, Wawrinka, Nishikori, and Djokovic.

The women’s draw is full of contenders, with a total of 50 major singles titles represented. This will be the Grand Slam return for the owner of 23 of those titles, Serena Williams. For two-Time French Open Champion Maria Sharapova, it’s her first appearance in Paris since 2015. And no less than six women have the chance to leave Roland Garros as the world number one: Simona Halep, Caroline Wozniacki, Garbine Muguruza, Elina Svitolina, Karolina Pliskova, and even France’s own Caroline Garcia.

While the staggered men’s and women’s first rounds makes for a lighter Day 1 schedule, there’s still plenty of good tennis to see on Sunday. The men’s side will feature number two seed Alexander Zverev, fourth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov, Kei Nishikori, and French fan favourite Gael Monfils. Action on the women’s side includes the Rome champion from just last Sunday in Elina Svitolina, Seven-time Major Champion Venus Williams, 2017 US Open Champion Sloane Stephens, and the Defending French Open Champion Jelena Ostapenko. All those male and female names are big favourites on Sunday, while the following matches may prove to be the more compelling contests.

Lucas Pouille vs. Danill Medvedev

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24-year-old Lucas Pouille is the top-seeded Frenchman, but is yet to have a strong showing at his home Slam. Despite being a two-time major quarter-finalist, he’s yet to advance passed the third round in Paris. Pouille though does know how to win in France, as he took the title in Montpellier just a few months ago with victories over fellow countrymen Benoit Paire, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and Richard Gasquet. And he was the hero for his Davis Cup team in 2017, clinching the tie and the cup for his country in Lille. Lucas though does not arrive in Paris with good clay results this year, going just 1-4 in the European clay events. He’s in a crowded quarter of the draw, with Sascha Zverev, Thiem, Wawrinka, and Nishikori. Russian Danill Medvedev had a breakthrough in January, as he came through qualifying to win the first title of career in Sydney. But the 22-year-old has the same 1-4 clay court record as Pouille coming into the French Open, and he’s on a four-match losing streak. It’s a winnable opening round for two streaky players who could use a victory, both of whom could be dangerous in the draw if they get hot. Their two previous meetings took place last year, and Pouille won both of them. With the French crowd behind him, I like Pouille’s chances to prevail again here.

Francesca Schiavone vs. Viktoria Kuzmova

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Schiavone is just a few weeks shy of 38-years-old, and had planned to retire last year. But her love of the game, which has been clearly evident over her two decades of professional play, has kept her on the tour despite a lack of results. The 2010 French Open champion is now ranked 265th in the world, having not won a tour-level match all year. She had to come through three rounds of qualifying to reach her 19th career main draw at Roland Garros. The veteran is always fun to watch, never one to hide her passion on the court. Her opponent is on a winning streak, having won an ITF clay event in her home country of Slovakia just last weekend. She also won a hard court ITF event in Shenzhen earlier this year. The 20-year-old is on the rise, now at a career-high ranking of 84. This will be her French Open main draw debut. The contrasts here between opponents are obvious. This first career meeting should have a boisterous outer-court crowd. The winner will likely face Elina Svitolina on Wednesday.

David Goffin vs. Robin Haase

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France is the home of many memories for David Goffin, both bitter and sweet. It was at the 2012 French Open where David Goffin came out of nowhere as a lucky loser to make the fourth round at his first-career major, even taking a set off his idol Roger Federer. Last year at Roland Garros, he slipped on the tarp at the back of the court and had to retire from his third round match with an ankle injury, which also forced him to miss Wimbledon. Just six months ago at the David Cup final in Lille, Goffin defeated Frenchmen Lucas Pouille and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in straight sets, though Belgium still went down in defeat 3-2. The draw was pretty kind to David, as he has a good path to return to the quarter-finals in Paris, or perhaps go even farther. The only higher seed in his quarter is Grigor Dimitrov, who has struggled of late. However, Novak Djokovic is a potential quarter-final opponent for Goffin. Robin Haase has nice memories from last year in a French-speaking city, as he advanced to his first Masters 1,000 semifinal in Montreal. Goffin holds a 4-1 record against Haase, but Robin’s win came on clay in Gstaad last summer. They played just a few weeks ago in Madrid, and Goffin won in straight sets. While the 44th-ranked Haase is a tricky first round opponent, I expect Goffin to win today, and to be a factor in the second week of the tournament.

Full order of play (time is GMT+1)