Andy Roddick has recently assessed the contenders for the 2024 Roland Garros and is convinced that this year's tournament is "wide open," with as many as 15 players expected to challenge.
For the past two decades, the French Open has been the most predictable Grand Slam tournament because of Rafael Nadal's dominance. Of the five times Nadal has failed to win the title in Paris since 2005, only three men have stepped up, with Novak Djokovic being the only multiple champion.
However, this year, nobody can confidently predict the champion, given what has transpired in the buildup. Nadal, the 14-time record champion, remains uncertain about competing at the tournament and has admitted to having self-doubts about his game following his defeat at the Italian Open.
Novak Djokovic has had a modest season so far, with no titles for his efforts. He has played the lowest number of clay matches before Roland Garros since 2006. The top favorites, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are battling injuries ahead of the tournament, which begins on May 26th.
World No. 4 Daniil Medvedev is also in a race against time to overcome a niggling injury. Speaking on Tennis Channel, Roddick is convinced that the 2024 edition will be the most open Grand Slam in the men's section in a long time.
"Every single person in the top four has some sort of injury concern going in. I don’t know that we have had a lot of Grand Slams in the last 25 years, certainly on the men’s side, that we can say; this is wide open. We haven’t had that conversation for such a long time."
Roddick has named three outsiders who have a shot at winning the tournament. The former World No. 1 also opined that the list could be expanded to include between 12 and 15 players in the title conversation.
"Our favorite is a guy dealing with a forearm injury and hasn’t played two out of the three Masters events going in. By the way, whatever the odds might say, Medvedev, (Andrey) Rublev, and (Casper) Ruud would also like a word here. Taylor Fritz, you have to put him in that conversation."
"We are not even talking about Rublev and he won in Madrid and there are so many names out there this year. All of sudden, we are talking about 12 or 15 guys for the first time in a long time. Opportunity is knocking for a lot of names that you may not consider to be top of the favorites list."
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