The second grand slam of the season is about to begin and will have a strong starter course: Rafael Nadalthe king of Roland Garroswill star in the most attractive match at the start of the main draw against the current 4th in the world, Alexander Zverev.
The draw that was held in the last few hours paired the 37-year-old Spanish tennis player with the German: Rafathat won 14 times the crown in Pariswould play for the last time in his favorite competition against a 27-year-old opponent whom he already faced each other on ten other occasions with a favorable balance of seven wins. Precisely the last time they saw each other’s faces was two years ago in the semifinals of Roland Garrosin a presentation that ended with Zverev’s retirement due to an unfortunate injury.
Among the most important initial clashes is that of the Serbian Novak Djokovicwhich will go against the local Pierre-Hugues Herbert (33 years old and 143rd in the ranking) who received a wild card. The other great candidate for the crown is the Italian Jannik Sinner, who will begin his course against the American Christopher Eubanks (43rd). There will also be many views on what the Spanish can do. Carlos Alcarazwho hopes to meet his rival who will arrive from qualifying.
On the Argentine side, Francisco Cerúndolo will collide with the German Yannick Hanfmann (85th), Pedro Cachin against the American Tommy Paul (14th), Federico Coria in front of the American Taylor Fritz (12th), Tomas Etcheverry He will face the Frenchman Arthur Cazaux (77th), Mariano Navone against the Spanish Pablo Carreño Busta (1047th, used the protected ranking), Thiago Tirante with the Spanish Pedro Martínez (49th) and Sebastian Baez wait for a qualy opponent.
In the women’s team, the novelty will be the debut in this instance of one of the country’s great promises: Julia Riera (21 years old – 93rd in the world) left the qualy behind and will seek to have a successful debut in the main draw against a rival that will be defined in the next few hours.
Although the other representatives in the classification (Martina Capurro Taborda, Solana Sierra and Paula Ormaechea) did not manage to overcome that filter, Argentina will have two other tennis players as champions at Roland Garros: Nadia Podoroska (59th) will play a high-risk duel against the Belarusian Victoria Azarenka (21st) and Maria Lourdes Carlé (83rd) will go against the Belgian Elise Mertens (27th).
It must be kept in mind that there are two more Argentines who can be added to this list: Roman Burruchaga (145°) will meet the Slovak Jozef Kovalík (146th) in the third round of qualifying for a ticket to the main draw. A possible, but even more complex case is that of Facundo Bagniswho withdrew from the qualifying duel against the Japanese Shintaro Mochizuki and could make the jump as a lucky loser if there are casualties, but for that he should also be fine from the discomfort in his left leg that took him out of the clash against the Asian in the second set.
Nor should we lose sight of the fact that the world number 1 in doubles Horacio Zeballos and his companion the Spanish Marcel Granollers They will pursue the first Grand Slam title as a duo: they reached the Wimbledon final twice and the US Open final once, without luck.
While the expectation for the start of the Grand Slam on clay grows, the focus of Argentine tennis is on semifinal that Etcheverry will play at the ATP 250 in Lyon: will go before the Argentine nationalized Italian Luciano Darderi with the dream of reaching the third final of his professional career (he lost in the two he has played so far). It must be taken into account that Tomi He took a leap in quality in his career after reaching the quarterfinals of Roland Garros in 2023 and there are great expectations about what he can do now.
