Being an unseeded player in the draw turned out catastrophic for Rafael Nadal, who will face Alexander Zverev in the first round of the 2024 Roland Garros.
The last time Nadal played at the French Open was in 2022 when he won it. The player he 'beat' in the semi-final was Zverev. He will play that player in a spectacular round-one matchup two years later.
A few things have happened since then. Nadal got injured and is entering this Roland Garros with a lot of question marks. The German, on the other hand, is one of the favorites after recently winning the Italian Open in Rome.
They've played some spectacular matches in the past, including that iconic Roland Garros match, which was cut short by Zverev's injury, and now they will meet again on the same court.
Nadal and Zverev have played each other ten times so far, and Nadal obviously did better in most of those matches. The German actually beat his opponent three times in those ten matches, which isn't a bad result at all, though he never beat him on a clay court.
He was actually pretty close the last time they played before he injured his ankle, so he will certainly enter this meeting confident. That should be true even more after he lifted the Italian Open trophy and with how the 22-time major winner performed in recent weeks.
| Rafael Nadal | Alexander Zverev | |
| 7 | H2H | 3 |
| 276 | Rank | 4 |
| 37 | Age | 27 |
| 7-4 | 2024 W/L | 28-9 |
| 1075-224 | Career W/L | 422-186 |
Obviously, this is going to be a very complicated match for Nadal, who hasn't really impressed with his performances lately. The match being a best-of-five will certainly complicate things even more for him, and even though it's played at Roland Garros, the German could beat the legend in this meeting.
Prediction: Alexander Zverev to win in four sets.