In that year’s edition, only 1 warm up masters event was was held prior to Roland Garros- with the Rome Masters being won by Novak Djokovic. However, history is on his side- as he has did win Roland Garros in 2020 under some of the most extreme circumstances the tournament has ever seen. Nadal has failed to participate in a single clay tournament leading up to to Roland Garros- the first time this has ever occurred in his career. Here we are in 2023- a world away from last year’s Roland Garros. This was despite managing an injury which required his personal doctor to fly to Paris and stay the length of the fortnight to attend to the Spanish maestro. Missing the first major of the year, and stumbling for months searching for a win, Rafael Nadal instead came out guns blazing to storm to his 22nd major title. It was only the 3rd time in 16 years that Nadal had ever been dumped from the French Open before winning the final.įast forward 12 months later, and it was Novak Djokovic who was now on the back foot of the G.O.A.T (greatest of all-time) debate. However, that year it was also a major which became anybody’s ball game as soon as Novak had dumped Nadal out of the tournament. Notably, the 2021 edition was also Roger Federer’s last trip to Roland Garros as a competitor, with the veteran walking out in an apocalyptic- style face covering. One key alteration which stands in contrast to the later editions was the jarring nature of empty stands brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. The change in structure of the night session gave a new lease to life to the least talked about major of the year. You can be forgiven for forgetting what the French Open was like two years ago.
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