Before each day of play at Roland Garros, we'll preview and predict three must-see matches.
“How’s Rafa look?” is the question of the week in the tennis world, and we’ll get our second answer on Thursday. We should also get a better answer. Rather than facing a teenage qualifier, as he did in his opener, Nadal will go up against Almagro, a former Top 10 player and fellow Spanish clay lover. On the plus side for Nadal, Almagro is also one of his longtime second-fiddles—Rafa is 12-1 against him—and he’s currently ranked 154th. On the minus side, Almagro’s lone win came not that long ago (last spring on clay in Barcelona), and he pushed him to two tiebreakers when they played at Roland Garros in 2010. This will be a test. Winner: Nadal
It’s all about the future here, starting with the fact that the 20-year-old American and the 18-year-old Swiss have no past: This will be the first meeting between what most of us believe will be two Top 10 players. Keys has a bigger game, a higher ranking (No. 16 to Bencic’s 35), and a semifinal Slam run on her résumé. But Bencic, a subtle point-constructor in the mold of Martina Hingis, is the more natural player on clay. The rallies will largely be on Keys’ racquet, but the opposing strengths and weaknesses of these young women could blend into something intriguing and hopefully competitive. Winner: Bencic
It’s Aussie kids’ day out on Court 7 on Thursday. Along with Bencic and Keys, two teammates from Down Under, Kokkinakis and Tomic, will face off. They put on a quality show when they played in Indian Wells earlier this year, in a match won by Tomic 6-4 in the third set. Kokkinakis, 19, is making steady progress—his ranking is up 66 spots since the start of 2015—and a win over Tomic would seem to be the next logical step. “The last match at Indian Wells,” Kokkinakis said earlier this week, “I really felt like I should have won, to be honest.” As for Bernie, he’s been something less than clutch this spring, losing three straight matches in third-set tiebreakers. But he survived another scare, and a serious case of fatigue, in his first-rounder against Luca Vanni, and he’ll surely be motivated to keep Kokkinakis under his wing a little longer. Winner: Tomic
Why is the 45th-ranked Watson 3-0 against the 40th-ranked Stephens? Tune in to find out tomorrow. Winner: Stephens
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