Stan Wawrinka and Novak Djokovic were the only two to win in Paris in recent years, apart from Rafael Nadal. They will not start the 2018 edition as title candidates.
The drop height is considerable. If Stan Wawrinka starts into the French Open 2018 this weekend, he can win relatively little – and lose a lot. Wawrinka, the 33-year-old Frenchman, was still a finalist in the clay court Grand Slam a year ago, when he was defeated by Matador Rafael Nadal in the title match. Now, in the course of an extremely difficult and complicated injury comeback, the goal is to defend the considerable sum of 1200 world ranking points. Or at least not to be eliminated too early and not to lose any more ground. “I am mentally strong again, believe in myself,” said Wawrinka once in the last days, on the fringes of the ATP tournament at home in Geneva. In the quarter-finals, however, Wawrinka lost without a hint of defeat to Martin Fucsovics from Hungary and even lost the second of two sets to zero.
For the French Open Championships, where he has often shown outstanding performances in the recent past and even emerged victorious in 2015, it is possible that he is already expected in round one adversity. The Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez is an ungrateful opponent in Wawrinkas current unstable condition. Should the Swiss lose, he would fall back to around 260th place in the world rankings. If he got stuck in the first week of the tournament at some point, the fall back would hardly be smoother, then he would have to look at the Top 150 of the charts from outside. By the way: Garcia-Lopez was the man who pulled Wawrinka from the highest Grand Slam heights in 2014. At that time Wawrinka came to Paris as Australian Open Champion – and failed bitterly to Garcia-Lopez. Wawrinka is now coming to the French capital with lean play, only playing ten games in 2018, with a 4:6 record.
Unlike Wawrinka, Novak Djokovic is once again considered a world-class troublemaker in Paris. The Serbian, who celebrated his 31st birthday last Tuesday, showed ascending form with a semi-final entry at the ATP Masters in Rome, only let himself be stopped there by Rafael Nadal. It was the first real glimmer of hope for the world’s first and temporarily absolute dominator of the industry – after a previously similarly complex attempt to return from injury. “Djokovic will make his way deep into the second week of Paris,” predicts Sweden’s former Mats Wilander.
Djokovic had recently brought back familiar faces to his side, such as former coach and confidante Marijan Vajda and Austrian fitness and nutrition guru Gebhard Gritsch. Djokovic will face Brazilian Rogerio Dutra-Silva, the world’s number 132, in the first round.