The year of sorpasso

The 120th edition of Roland Garros started yesterday, although it is often said that the tournament does not truly begin until its king, the one who has already won it 13 times, does not enter the scene. And we will have to wait another day, until tomorrow, to see Rafa Nadal in action. The Spaniard aspires to conquer his 14th Musketeers Cup and reach the magical figure of 21 Grand Slam titles and complete the surprise of Roger Federer, with whom he maintains a tie at 20 at the top of the men's table. Although the Swiss discarded himself in a tournament that was never favorable to him because of Nadal, and that he only won in 2009 because the Spanish fell in the second round against Soderling.

Federer, who focuses his energies on trying to reissue the magic of Wimbledon, debuts today (not before 4pm, Eurosport) against the Uzbek Istomin, whom he dominates 7-0 in the private balance. Nadal, who trained in double session since Thursday until yesterday, the day on which he turned to the Italian Lorenzo Musetti as a partner in the Jean Bouin outdoor complex, He will start his 17th consecutive appearance in the French major against Australian Alexei Popyrin, whom he won a few weeks ago at the Mutua Madrid Open. If he repeats success, the world number three would be the first tennis player to chain two streaks of five titles in a big one. He did it at Roland Garros between 2010 and 2014.

His main rival in the Gallic championship and also for historical supremacy, Novak Djokovic, opens tomorrow against American Sandgren and arrives grown after winning in Belgrade Before his countrymen, to whom he promised that he would go for another trophy in Paris. If he scratched it he would be the first to win at least twice every Grand Slam in the Open Era (since 1968) and the third of all time after Emerson and Laver. Speaking of Aussies, the victory would mean the Balkan win for the second time the Australian Open and Roland Garros in the same year and follow in the footsteps of those two stars. He did it in 2016.

Nadal and Djokovic are the great dominators in recent years, as they have won 10 of the last 11 Slams, with Thiem's ​​only interference at the 2020 US Open, in which the Mallorcan did not participate and the one from Belgrade was disqualified. The Austrian will not worry them this time, because yesterday he fell to Andújar Who could do it? Tsitsipas, Rublev and Zverev are the main candidates, because Medvedev is known to hate playing on clay. In the WTA table, Serena Williams will attempt to match Margaret Court's record of 24 Slam titles. Today the new night session of the tournament opens before Begu, at 9:00 p.m., without an audience because at that time there is a curfew.

More Grand Slam titles

1. Rafa Nadal 20

-. Roger Federer (Sui) 20

3. Novak Djokovic (Ser) 18

4. Pete Sampras (USA) 14

5. Roy Emerson (Aus) 12

More GrandSlam ATP and WTA titles

1. Margaret Court (Aus) 24

2. Serena Williams (USA) 23

3. Steffi Graf (Ale) 22

4. Rafa Nadal 20

-. Roger Federer (Sui) 20

6. Helen Wills (USA) 19

7. Novak Djokovic (Ser) 18

-. Chris Evert (USA) 18

-. M. Navratilova (RCh / USA) 18

10. Pete Sampras (USA) 14

More Grand Slam titles

1. Rafa Nadal Roland Garros 13

2. Novak Djokovic (Ser) Australia 9

3. Roger Federer (Sui) Wimbledon 8

4. Bill Larned (USA) US Open 7

-. William Renshaw (GBr) Wimbledon 7

-. Pete Sampras (USA) Wimbledon 7

-. Richard Sears (USA) US Open 7

-. Bill Tilden (USA) US Open 7