Each week, Sport360°'s tennis expert, Reem Abulleil, offers her thoughts on the major talking points from the Tour before looking to the week ahead…
After the shock that resulted from Rafael Nadal’s first loss in Monte Carlo in 10 years subsided, my thoughts quickly fast-forwarded to the looming Roland Garros and all I could think of was: ‘Nadal seeded No5 could play Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals of the French Open’.
The words travesty and unacceptable quickly followed. After watching Nadal and Djokovic produce a high-quality second set in the Monte Carlo final, I couldn’t fathom the thought of having those two, arguably the best two players on the surface at the moment, face-off as early as the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.
It just made no sense. Moments later, quotes surfaced (courtesy of Reuters) from Guy Forget, a member of the Roland Garros Committee, saying it would be possible to give Nadal a higher seeding at the French Open, where he has won a record seven times, in order to avoid a situation like this.
Wimbledon is the only Slam that can take into account a player’s past results when handing out seedings, and if Roland Garros opt to do so for Nadal’s unusual case, it will be ground-breaking and possibly controversial, but in my opinion the right way to go.
Nobody wants to see a Nadal-Djokovic showdown that early in a Grand Slam, nor a Nadal-Federer, or Nadal-Murray quarter-final for that matter.
This is a very unique case of a player who has dominated a Major for most of the past decade and returns to it after an injury layoff ranked No5. He’s an exceptional champion in Paris and deserves an exceptional seeding.
Not to mention how lop-sided the draw would be if the seedings remain unchanged.. That’s not to say David Ferrer (the current world No4) does not factor into this decision. The Spaniard has earned his spot in Nadal’s absence and many could argue that he deserves a top-four seeding.
But considering his record at Roland Garros is weaker than the current top-three and Nadal, as well as his performances against the top guys in Majors, few would argue against a seeding change.
THUMBS UP
Novak Djokovic – A few months after he became the first player to win three straight Australian Opens, Djokovic becomes the first player to beat Nadal in Monte Carlo in 10 years. Coming off an ankle injury, the world No1 looked as ruthless as his 2011 self. Watch out for the Djoker in Paris!
THUMBS DOWN
Ernests Gulbis – It seems the Latvian was doing everything in his power to get defaulted from his match against Juan Monaco in the second round in Monte Carlo. He broke a racquet in the first set to get a penalty. Kicked a ball in the stands in the third set to get a point penalty. Then smashed his racquet in the umpire’s chair to get a GAME penalty. One more shenanigan and he would have been defaulted. He lost the match instead.
BEST THINKING OUTSIDE-THE-BOX MOMENT
Marinko Matosevic resorted to some intriguing tactics against Nadal in their second round clash in Monte Carlo. Down 1-6, 2-5 to Nadal, as the players headed to their chairs, the Australian knocked over Nadal’s meticulously-placed water bottles, which the Spaniard obsessively puts in the same spot every game with the labels always facing a certain direction.
It’s seems Matosevic ran out of ideas and thought, ‘when all else fails, knock down his water bottles’ was a worthy strategy. Nadal’s reaction? He looked to his box, shrugged and laughed.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I can’t stand Azarenka, she’s a bully.” Roberta Vinci takes honesty to a whole new level in an interview with Corriere del Mezzo Giorno.
ARAB SPOTLIGHT
The phenomenal efforts of 18-year-old Ons Jabeur saw Tunisia secure promotion to Group I in Fed Cup for the first time since 1994. Jabeur won all four singles matches and the one doubles clash she contested within a four-day period helping her team defeat Estonia, Finland, Latvia and finally Lithuania.
Hats off to her team-mate Nour Abbes as well for winning the first and crucial point in the play-off against Lithuania.
Egypt’s Mohamed Safwat, the Arab No3, won his first title of the season (third of his career) in the Futures event in Sharm El Sheikh without dropping a set, while Tunisia’s Malek Jaziri is slowly trying to recover his pre-injury form and has made the quarter-finals in the Santos Challenger in Brazil last week.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Andy Murray’s early exit in Monte Carlo to Stan “The Man” Wawrinka saw Roger Federer reclaim the No2 spot from the comforts of his own home in Switzerland where he has been practising on clay.
Fabio Fognini and Grigor Dimitrov are both at career-high rankings having cracked the top-30 for the first time.
WEEK AHEAD
David Ferrer and Rafael Nadal are the top two seeds in Barcelona, Janko Tipsarevic ditches his plans to take a break from tennis and is the top seed in Bucharest, Maria Sharapova and Time’s cover girl Li Na lead the pack in Stuttgart, while Dominika Cibulkova is top dog in Marrakech.
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