NADAL HAS THE LOOK OF A CHAMPION
THE match I am most eagerly anticipating is on Friday — Rafael Nadal versus Dominic Thiem in the men’s semi-finals. That is providing Thiem can recover from his gruelling match last night and make it through the quarters. The energy he will have expended in that five-setter only supports my belief that Nadal is favourite to win the event, despite all the question marks against him at the start of it. He has not had a proper test yet but I thought it was crucial that he got a relatively comfortable first-week draw and that is what transpired. In an example of how Rafa is always prepared to adapt his game, it looks like he has been flattening out his strokes in the early rounds. Given the slow balls and conditions his usual heavy spin is not quite so effective, so he is hitting through the court more. Before the tournament he complained about the balls, yet he and the other two main contenders have just gone about their business once the matches got underway. All of them came in with issues: Nadal lost in Rome and was short of matches, Novak Djokovic was weighed down by what happened in New York and Thiem had time off after his life-changing win at Flushing Meadows. They are used to having everything perfect for them off the court but they seem to have ignored irritations with the bubble restrictions and the weather that have stressed other players and got on with it. Judging by what I have heard from players, the bubble is not as strict as New York. It is nonetheless a very different type of French Open. On the men’s side at least it seems the cream will rise to the top, regardless. It would not be a surprise if the four semi-finalists end up being the first, second, third and fifth seeds, with Stefanos Tsitsipas emerging to meet Djokovic.