French open 2021: 5 players who can stop Rafael Nadal in his quest of 21st Grand Slam – ‘The King of Clay’ Rafael Nadal will aim for his 21st Grand Slam of the career when he begins his title defence at the Roland Garros. Rafael Nadal has won 13 French Open titles and will look to make it five in a row this year. Even though Nadal has experienced a new level of dominance in the French Open in the last few years, there are some top-notch talents like arch-rival Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer or Dominic Thiem, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev who can give him run for his money in French Open 2021.
In this article, we at Insidesport will take you through the list of 5 players who can stop Rafael Nadal in his quest for the 21st Grand Slam in the French Open 2021.
French open 2021: Novak Djokovic
Age – 34 years-old
Birth Place – Belgrade, Serbia
Residence- Monte Carlo, Monaco
Height – 6 ft. 2 in. ( 1.87 metre )
Weight- 170 lbs. ( 77 kilos )
Coach – Marian Vajda, Goran Ivanisevic
Win/Loss – 950 / 195
Novak Djokovic is currently ranked as world No. 1. Djokovic has been No. 1 for a record total of 322 weeks and has finished as year-end No. 1 on six occasions. These stats show his dominance in the world of Tennis in the last few years. Djokovic has won 18 Grand Slam men’s singles titles out of which just one came in the French Open. However, his win percentage on Parisian soil is 83. He has won 74 games and lost 15. He lost the final of last year against Nadal and will aim to take revenge this year.
French open 2021: Dominic Thiem
Age – 27 years-old
Birth Place – Wiener Neustadt, Austria
Residence – Lichtenworth, Austria
Height – 6 ft. 1 in. ( 1.85 metre )
Weight – 174 lbs. ( 78 kilos )
Coach – Nicolas Massu
Win/Loss – 309 / 164
Austria’s Dominic Thiem has been ranked as high as world No. 3, which he first achieved in March 2020. He has won one Grand Slam title at the 2020 US Open where he came back from two sets down to defeat Alexander Zverev in the final. In the 2018 and 2019 French Open, he lost to Rafael Nadal in the final. He has been playing at Roland Garros for last 10 years. His win percentage is 80, having won 28 games while losing just 7. He will aim to better his stats against Rafel Nadal this year.
French open 2021: Daniil Medvedev
Age – 25 years-old
Birth Place – Moscow, Russia
Residence – Monte Carlo, Monaco
Height – 6 ft. 6 in. ( 1.98 metre )
Weight – 182 lbs. ( 82 kilos )
Professional career
Coach – Gilles Cervara
Win/Loss – 177 / 91
Russia’s Daniil Medvedev is currently ranked world No. 2 by ATP. He became the first player outside of men’s tennis’ Big Four to occupy a position in the top 2 since Lleyton Hewitt in July 2005. In the 2020 ATP Finals where he defeated the top 3 players Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Dominic Thiem. With the win, Medvedev became the first and only player to defeat the top 3 ranked players in the world en route to the title. This achievement speaks about his recent form. Daniil has featured in four French Open so far. In all of these, he was knocked out in the first round. This year with terrific form under his belt he will aim to better his record.
French open 2021: Alexander Zverev
Age – 24 years-old
Birth Place – Hamburg, Germany
Residence – Monte Carlo, Monaco
Height – 6 ft. 6 in. ( 1.98 metre )
Weight – 198 lbs. ( 89 kilos )
Coach – Alexander Zverev Sr.
Win/Loss – 269 / 133
German Tennis star Alexander Zverev has been ranked as high as No. 3 in the world by the ATP and has been a permanent fixture in the top 10 since July 2017. He reached his first Grand Slam final at the 2020 US Open, finishing runner-up to Dominic Thiem. His best perfomance in French Open came in 2020 when he reached the fourth round. Zverev was seeded 6th. He beat Dennis Novak, Pierre-Hugues Herbert, and Marco Cecchinato, before losing in four sets to Jannik Sinner. Recently, at the Madrid Open, Zverev defeated Rafael Nadal, Dominic Thiem, and Matteo Berrettini en route to his fourth Masters 1000 title.
French open 2021: Roger Federer
Age – 39 years-old
Birth Place – Basel, Switzerland
Residence – Switzerland
Height – 6 ft. 1 in. ( 1.85 metre )
Weight – 187 lbs. ( 84 kilos )
Coach – Ivan Ljubicic, Severin Luthi
Win/Loss – 1243 / 273
Tennis legend Roger Federer is ranked No. 8 in the world. He has won 20 Grand Slam men’s singles titles, an all-time record shared with Rafael Nadal. Federer featured in French Open 19 times out of which he could only manage to win 1 title way back in 2009. He has played four finals here and his win percentage is 80 which is the worst comparing all four grand slams. He has won 70 games and lost 17 in French Open.
French open 2021: Stefanos Tsitsipas (Dark Horse)
Age – 22 years-old
Birth Place – Athens, Greece
Residence – Monte Carlo, Monaco
Height – 6 ft. 4 in. ( 1.93 metre )
Weight – 196 lbs. ( 88 kilos )
Coach- Apostolos Tsitsipas
Win/Loss – 166 / 84
Greek star Stefanos Tsitsipas is the youngest player ranked in the top 10 by the ATP and is currently ranked No. 5 in the world. Tsitsipas was the champion at the 2019 ATP Finals, becoming the youngest winner of the year-end championships in eighteen years. He has won seven ATP singles titles. At the 2020 French Open, he was seeded 5th and reached the semifinal, defeating Grigor Dimitrov and Andrey Rublev, before losing to Djokovic in five sets. He has played 13 matches in French Open out of which he won 9.
Editors pick
