Roland Garros burns without starting: Nadal, Djokovic and Alcaraz coincide in the draw

If this Roland Garros already had incentives in itself, more than enough taking into account the landscape that is foreseen for the next two weeks and the last events of the tour on clay – the triumphal walk of Carlos Alcaraz through Barcelona and Madrid, the misfortune of Rafael Nadal in Rome, the rebirth of Novak Djokovic in the Foro Italico…–, the draw held this Thursday brought an extra pepper to the edition that begins on Sunday.

From now on, from minute zero, tension and fireworks.

Dynamite.

An absolutely explosive cocktail.

Put to intertwine, the imaginary scriptwriter of this transcendental tournament, so attractive, would surely think, what better way to do it in a big way.

So go ahead: all the gunpowder at the service of the show.

All on the same path.

In other words, to reach the final on June 5 at the Philippe Chatrier, the three great references of the moment, Nadal, Djokovic and Alcaraz, will have to beat each other.

And there will only be one.

Waiting to see how the initial section unfolds and if they all manage to overcome the obstacles of the first week, always treacherous, the Mallorcan (35 years old) and the Serbian (34) could meet in some hypothetical quarters and the winner would find himself in the next station with the Murcian (19), who has been pushing hard.

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This is how the great Frenchman defines it on his social networks, reproducing a scene corresponding to his first training session, in which from so much stretching the tapes that are used to tone the muscles and activate the joints, the boy ends up bursting them.

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Djokovic, winner in Rome, is back

It was possible that Nadal would be presented with a very different path, less sinuous;

However, the final drawing of the table – the three in the upper area, as determined by the computer system this Thursday – exposes him again to the most difficult yet.

From the “miracle” of Melbourne in January – more than half a year without competing and contagion of covid at the gates of the great Australian – to the umpteenth exercise of improvement in Paris.

The Balearic arrives at the appointment between cottons, touched on his left foot (more than usual) and after reflecting after his defeat in the round of 16 in Rome in which, for the first time, he showed that the scaphoid injury is winning the battle at times.

Neither more nor less, Nadal's word: "I play because it makes me happy, but the pain takes away that happiness."

The 21-big champion will debut against Jordan Thompson (81st).

Alcaraz, for his part, will debut against a player from the previous phase and rises without complexes, with all the ambition: sixth in the world, he has won 16 of the 17 games he has played on this tour, two trophies.

He is, without question, one of the favorites for the title.

Djokovic was not until recently, but his progressive line towards landing in the Bois de Boulogne returns him to the first space on the grid.

He won with authority in the Italian arena, intimidatingly, and clings to the memory of the previous season, when he floored Nadal in the semi-finals and came from behind Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final to lift his second Musketeers Cup.

Curves for Badosa and Muguruza

As if he had measured the times with square and set square, Nole — quoted with Yoshihito Nishioka at the opening, present at the draw — warns: “I am very motivated to play my best tennis.

Historically, I've always been strong here and last year was the toughest Grand Slam I've ever won."

Meanwhile, yesterday the last-minute absences of Roberto Bautista (wrist) and Sara Sorribes (rib) were confirmed.

Yes, the two great Spanish tricks will be present in the women's draw.

Paula Badosa, current number three in the world, will start against Fiona Ferro and envisions a potentially very thorny route (Collins, Sabalenka, Swiatek in some hypothetical semifinals...);

meanwhile, Garbiñe Muguruza, tenth, has an initial date with Kaia Kanepi and also faces curves (Kontaveit, Krejcikova, Sakkari...).

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