"Widest open since Nadal's domination": Bartoli sees five players as standing out including Djokovic and Alcaraz in Roland Garros field

Rafael Nadal will miss this year's Roland Garros event and it's made this year's event the widest open it has been since Rafael Nadal started dominating it years ago.

This is the first Roland Garros Rafael Nadal is missing and generally when he's in Paris he is the favourite to win it. That's what happens when you have a player dominate one event as much as he did over the years. The Spaniard won it 14 times losing only a handful of times and not having him there certainly opens up the event giving many other players a chance to win it.

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Wide Open

Former player Marion Bartoli certainly agrees with that but even so, there are a few players that are more likely to win the event compared to the rest of the field. According to Bartoli, the list is five names strong:

"This is going to be the widest open Roland Garros we’re going to have since Nadal’s domination. I have picked five names who could win this year and they are Djokovic, Alcaraz, Holger Rune, Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas. I still feel like one of those players will be the winner but picking five names who could win the men’s tournament has never happened in the past in almost 20 years. It was always Rafa, Roger Federer or Djokovic. One of those guys has a huge shot to win Roland Garros which is very surprising.”

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Breaking down the favourites

Talking about the favourites, Bartoli said:

“Alcaraz is one of the favourites but he’s not the overwhelming favourite. No, I don’t think so. There is not one player who stands out in the pack. Rome came and out of the blue for Daniil Medvedev to win it under very, very slow conditions because it had been raining for two weeks in the Italian capital. He’s been able to grab the title and you may think he’s made for faster surfaces, he’s still able to win under slow clay-courts and go all the way to the title, beating Rune. You may think of players who you would normally not give a chance actually have a chance this year and that’s something new. Djokovic is not 100 per cent so we will have to see how physically he deals with his small elbow injury and find some form as the tournament progresses.”

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