Victors include old, new faces
aARIS » Surprising results and “Who is that?” stories abound as this one- oftheseis- not- like- the- others French Open heads to the fourth round — with the wild- card entry, the pair of qualifiers and the group of men and women who keep advancing in their tournament debuts.
And then there are the known quantities still around, the been- theredonethat crew, led by No. 1- seeded Novak Djokovic, who reached the round of 16 for the 11th consecutive year, equaling a record held by his Big Three rivals, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
Forget the idea of an early upset or even slightest upstaging of Djokovic. He is outclassing opponents and making every contest uncompetitive, yet again ceding merely five games — as he has each time out so far on this trip to Roland Garros — in a 6- 0, 6- 3, 6- 2 victory Saturday over 153rd- ranked Daniel Elahi Galan.
“If you impose yourself from the very beginning on the court, which I have in those first three matches here,” said Djokovic, who is 34- 1 in 2020 as he bids for a second French Open championship and 18th Grand Slam title in all, “then it makes it hard for them to really believe that they can come back and make a turnaround in the match.”
Galan much.
“Of course he’s superior ( to) me, but you also feel like you have to make everything perfect or you will lose zero, zero and zero,” Galan said.
No. 2- seeded Nadal, the 12- time champion in Paris, and No. 3 Dominic Thiem, the runner- up to him the last two years, both play in the fourth round Sunday against 20- year- old opponents who are ranked outside the Top 200. Nadal faces Sebastian Korda, the American who went through qualifying, while Thiem meets Hugo Gaston, the Frenchman who got in via a wild card.
Those are the sorts of newcomers filling the field this year — only six of the 16 women left are seeded; 10 of the remaining men are — prompting various theories for why.
Is it the extra rain and chill and slower courts, courtesy of the SeptemberOctober dates instead of the standard May- June, a switch made because of the coronavirus pandemic?
Is it the lack of matches for anyone, because of the sport’s more than fivemonth hiatus that began in March?
There is something of a prevailing sense among some players that, as expressed by Daniel Altmaier, the 22- year- old German who is ranked 186th, and never had participated in a Grand Slam tournament until qualifying for this one, “Literally everyone can beat everyone at the moment.”
As if setting out to prove that all by himself, Altmaier hasn’t dropped a set through three main- draw matches, including a surprisingly simple 6- 2, 7- 6 ( 5), 6- 4 humbling of No. 7 seed Matteo Berrettini of Italy to follow up on a victory over No. 30 Jan- Lennard Struff, a friend, countryman and longtime practice partner. confirmed as