Roland Garros - No more a burial ground for top seeds

With only three more days to go for the commemoration of this year’s clay court grand slam, there are only three people who look likely to win the tournament at Roland Garros. They are Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. For those who follow tennis, the mentioning of those names is not going to spring a surprise to anyone. Further, it goes without saying that out of the three mentioned, Rafael Nadal is going to be the absolute favorite to hold the trophy for the record seventh time in his career.

Last year all the three players, the names of whom I have mentioned above, made it to the semifinals along with No.4 seed, Britain’s Andy Murray. It was one of those few occasions when all the top four contestants in men’s ATP tour made it to the semifinals of a grand slam major.

Gone are those days when the players, who were ranked anywhere in the top of the ATP rankings, used to struggle hard even to make it to the quarterfinals of the French open. Although they used to rule the game on all the other surfaces, they just went crumbling at the sight of the red clay surface. It is where players of lesser caliber like Sergei Bruguera, Gustavo Kuerten, Yegeny Kafelnikov, Thomas Muster etc have made merry, when top players like Sampras and Agassi were always sidelined. Atleast Agassi had won a French Open which summed up his career with all the four grand slams during the last stages of his elite career, but Sampras had never even crossed a semi-final despite the sublimed greatness which he is famous for.

This “burial of seeds” business is not present nowadays at Roland Garros. Just like all the other grand slam tournaments, the top players are nowadays finding it convenient to showcase their greatness on clay too. Rafael Nadal, the defending champion at French open, was on a winning spree here from 2005 to 2008 and after a brief slump in 2009, came back to win here in 2010 and 2011. He had been world no.2 all through his victories in Roland Garros and that says a lot about how the seeds are no longer buried here.

Nadal’s opponent in the final, except for 2005 and 2010, has been Roger Federer who was ranked No.1 in ATP most of time he entered the French Open. He was also the winner in the year 2009, defeating the conqueror of Nadal – Robin Soderling, in the finals. So both the players, who had been right at top of the ATP rankings, were able to rule the surface at will for so long.

When Roger Federer surpassed Pete Sampras’ record of most number of majors by winning Wimbledon, just after completing his career grand slam by winning at Roland Garros, the great Golfer, Tiger Woods said that in the absence of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer was the greatest clay-court player on earth. Of course, it does not require any statement from a special person like Tiger Woods to agree on that fact because Federer himself had been in five of the finals at French Open, only to be vanquished by the genius of Nadal.

Besides Nadal and Federer, now Novak Djokovic who is the other favorite to win French open, is currently ranked as world no.1 in ATP. For Nadal though, if he wins, it would be yet another French Open win. But if Djokovic wins, it would be something which only greats such as Rod Laver and Stephanie Graf were able to accomplish. Yes, he would be one of the very distinguished few to win four majors in a row, a feat which even Roger Federer failed to accomplish thrice in his career. However, his biggest hurdle could only be Rafael Nadal, who could prove to be a thorn in his flesh. I do not see anyone else from top 10, with the exception of Roger, or anyone ranked outside top 20, to stop him from achieving the feat.

So on the whole, other than the distinguished top three gentlemen in the ATP rankings, there are no other players who look even close to getting a French open title. Maybe one stand out performance from any of the lesser ranked players could well pull off an upset, like what we saw from Soderling in 2009 when he ousted Nadal in the fourth round. But the chances of such a thing happening again look pretty bleak this year. But again, even if one of the top three succumbs to the law of averages, the other two will not leave it for others to grab the title.

It is a real surprise to see how much the game has changed or improved in the last decade or so. Fifteen to twenty years back, there was a chance for players who were ranked low, to earn a major and to have it as a souvenir for the rest of the life post retirement. So they used to view French Open as some sort of silver lining in their career and for them, first week of June had always been something like “a rain in a desert”. The top ranked players of those days could not adapt themselves to the baseline game which is the prerequisite of winning a grand slam on clay and so the lower ranked players made the most of it.

Since the individuals at the top could not achieve much as far as French open was concerned, it was not given the same sort of importance which Wimbldeon or US Open used to get. Even the players used to view participation in Wimbledon as a prestigious event and looked down upon Roland Garros. Even though the clay court of French Open has produced the likes of many renowned champions viz., Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Jim Courier, not many players preferred having it as their first choice surface.

But the advent of baseline game nowadays has really taken French Open to greater heights. The exploits of Rafael Nadal on clay is really pushing others to follow suit and win the tournament. The fact that despite all his achievements and greatness, Roger Federer is seen trying to compete at the highest level possible to pocket a French open, says it all as to how much players are desperate to do well here.

This radical change in the minds of the players has totally brought in many viewers to see Roland Garros who were once stuck with seeing only Wimbledon, US Open and Australian Open. We should be thankful to players like Nadal and Federer, without whom, this might not have been possible.