With both Roger Federer, Andy Murray
and Novak Djokovic unable to make a heavy impact on the recent ATP
Madrid Open on clay, the path looks clear for defending champion
Rafael Nadal to power his way to yet another French Open title at
Roland Garros in 2013. It has pretty much been the Spaniard’s
tournament since 2005 when he won it for the first time. He has won
the event at Roland Garros for a record seven times already, only
being interrupted once since his maiden win, when Roger Federer went
all the way to the title in 2009. It is clay and it is Rafael Nadal,
the rest are going to be playing catch up to him. The bookmakers have
installed him as strong 5/6 favourite to take an unprecedented 8th
title in the Mens French Open Betting.
In last year’s final, Rafael Nadal
beat Novak Djokovic, the Serbian showing some resistance in the third
set, but ultimately the Spaniard won through. Nadal has a tremendous
52-1 match record at the tournament and that will count for a lot
when he steps out on to what has become one of his spiritual homes in
tennis. When he won the rain-delayed final last season, the
culmination of the match being played on Monday, he broke the tie
with Bjorn Borg for the most trophies won at the same tournament. His
return to the game after his layoff through injury after Wimbledon
last season, has been immense. Not perfect, not even on clay, but the
more matches he gets under his belt on his path to Roland Garros, the
stronger he will be.
Novak Djokovic, who has a 31-8 match
record at the event, his best run coming as losing finalist last
season, will likely be Nadal’s closest challenger. Djokovic himself
doesn’t have a bad record on clay, taking eight ATP titles before.
Djokovic has the adaptability and he beat Nadal in the final of the
2012 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo, which was on clay. It
was a straight sets victory too, in which the Spaniard never really
got going, and Djokovic was there to punish him. So the success of
Nadal, with seven French Open titles in the last eight, is not only
down to him, but because of the lack of genuine threat from the other
big four. If Djokovic, trading as strong second favourite at a price
of 6/5, slips early on the clay surface in the title, as he did in
Madrid, then the path should be clear and easy for Nadal.
What accentuates the chances of Nadal
at the French Open, is that Britain’s Number One Andy Murray is not
a proven force on the surface. That can be summed up in the fact that
he is at longer odds than Federer is. There is more unpredictability
about Murray perhaps, than any of the other big four on clay. Roger
Federer still has a chance on the dirt because it is more forgiving
and he can play at a slower pace than the hard courts. Federer, at a
price of 11/1 to win at Roland Garros again, has earned twelve titles
on clay during his career, and while the Swiss superstar does seem to
be a fading force, he will thrive in the atmosphere. He has only won
one French Open before, but could make a semi final appearance as in
five of the last six Grand Slams since the 2011 US Open, Federer has
reached at least the semi final stage.
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