Thursday in Rome, all third round matches in both the men’s and women’s draws will take the court, making for another full day of great matchups at Parco del Foro Italico. On the men’s side, top seed Rafael Nadal could be on a collision course with second seed (and champion in both of the past two weeks) Alexander Zverev in what would be a blockbuster final. But many other big names are in their way, such as Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin Del Potro. On the women’s side, while a resounding favourite does not exist, an extremely intriguing draw does. Seven of the top 10 seeds remain, along with multiple-major winners Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, and Angelique Kerber. With 16 singles matches to take place, here’s a look at two of the many intriguing clashes on the schedule.
Rafael Nadal vs. Denis Shapovalov
Prior to last week, Shapovalov had zero tour-level wins on clay. By comparison, Nadal has 404 career clay victories. The young Canadian has become quite the phenomenon, and it all began with his thrilling victory over Nadal at the Rogers Cup last summer, 7-6 in a final set tiebreak. That’s the match that put Shapovalov on the tennis map. Less than a year later, the 19-year-old is now the Canadian number one, surpassing Milos Raonic with his run in Rome this week. And this run is on the heels of last week’s run in Madrid, his second career Masters 1,000 semifinal. Nadal will certainly be out to avenge the loss from Montreal last year, especially on his precious clay. The number one ranking is also on the line for Nadal, as he needs to win the title in Rome to regain it from Federer, as well as to have any chance to be number one following the French Open. As hot as Shapovalov has been, it’s hard to imagine him going up 2-0 in his career against the king of clay. Still this should be a fun battle of lefties on Campo Centrale.
Caroline Garcia vs. Sloane Stephens
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Here we have two top 10 players meeting in the third round, and two prominent names to consider for deep runs at Roland Garros in two weeks. It was just last year where Garcia made the quarter-finals at her home Slam event. The Frenchwoman then went on a tear in the fall, winning back-to-back tournaments in Wuhan and Beijing. Her results have simmered a bit in 2018, but she’s reshown her clay prowess by making the semis in both Stuttgart and Madrid. Stephens went on an eight-match losing streak following her US Open breakthrough, but rebounded to take the title in Miami. Sloane is due for some success outside the US, so why not on the clay? She advanced to the fourth round at the French Open four years in a row between 2012 and 2015. This is a fresh match-up, as they’ve only played twice, and not since 2014. I expect this to be a close one, but Garcia would appear to be the favourite due to her recent results on the clay.
