"Roland Garros will be key in GOAT race" says Patrick Mouratoglou

The player who wins this year’s French Open will grab a big advantage in the race to be the greatest men’s tennis player of all time according to Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou.

Nadal currently leads the battle for most majors after he became the first man to win 21 Grand Slams with his victory at the Australian Open edging him one ahead of Djokovic and Roger Federer. The French Open is next Slam on the calendar and Mouratoglou says this year’s clay-court Grand Slam could play a huge role in the GOAT debate.

He said:

“The clay season is going to be unbelievable. First there is going to be so much on the line because who wins Roland Garros is going to be the key. If it is Rafa then he is going to have two more Grand Slams than Novak. If it is Novak they go equal and Novak has better chance than Rafa on grass. This battle between those two for the number of Grand Slam titles is unbelievable so Roland Garros can be a key this season."

He further said:

“Because of this Covid story he [Djokovic] was not able to play for most of the year so he is lacking a lot of matches. On the other hand, Rafa gained so much confidence as Novak was not playing, he won almost everything. You had Novak with a big advantage [at the start] and with what happened, Rafa now has the edge, but then Rafa gets injured so he is not going to be able to play enough this year and then it comes back to a balance."

He finished off with:

“If Novak is going to win everything until Rafa gets back from injury, that would be a game changer as then you would have Novak full of confidence back. But it won’t be easy when you don’t play matches like he did the past month – the little he played he lost early – it is not easy, even for Novak. What is going to happen in the next few weeks with Novak is going to give us a taste of the chances of Novak and Rafa at Roland Garros, which I said is the key. There might be a joker, who can maybe be [Carlos] Alcaraz, maybe Stefanos [Tsitsipas], maybe someone else, we will see.”