By Chris Oddo | Monday June 4, 2018
After winning 12 consecutive sets to reach the quarterfinals, is Juan Martin del Potro the player with the best shot to beat Nadal in Paris?
No offense to Diego Schwartzman, but the little engine that could couldn’t possibly defeat Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, right? And I don't mean to degrade the obvious talents of Marin Cilic, who improved to 22-8 in five-setters at the majors with a victory over Fabio Fognini on Monday evening, but what are the odds of him knocking Nadal out of back-to-back majors this season?
Sorry to look ahead tennis fans, but if you’re like me, you know that one of the biggest storylines on the men’s side at Roland Garros is not “who is going to win the title?” but who can potentially make a competitive contest with Nadal?
That may be potentially annoying to some but we must not ever take for granted the greatness of Nadal on clay--it would be foolish to miss out on the greatest phenomenon that tennis has ever seen simply because his matches tend to lack drama.
Then again, we sure could use a little drama on the men's side...
We may have our solution to that now that all eight quarterfinals have been booked—Juan Martin del Potro.
If you had asked me about two weeks ago when the Argentine announced, after pulling out of his round of 16 match with David Goffin in Rome, that he had a Grade 1 groin strain and that he would keep the public updated about his participation in Roland Garros, I would have said no way is Del Potro a threat to make a run at Roland Garros, emphatically.
It was my belief that Del Potro would be cautious and either skip Roland Garros altogether or not invest too much of his energy with the grass season perhaps a better option.
Boy did I misinterpret those tea leaves.
Now that Del Potro has danced through the first four rounds and reeled off 12 consecutive sets in Paris, it’s becoming clear that if anybody can give indomitable Nadal a run for his money on the terre battue of Court Philippe-Chatrier, it’s the Tower of Tandil.
No, I wouldn’t be foolish enough to actually pick him to win against the 10-time French Open champion if he reached the semifinal and met him there, but I’d be confident that he could ruffle Nadal’s feathers, and possibly even take a set or two.
Why?
Why not?
We know of Del Potro’s big-match history. We know what he did in the 2009 U.S. Open final when he shocked the world, and we know what he did at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio without a topspin backhand. In 2009 of course he shocked Roger Federer in one of the most uproarious U.S. Open finals in recent memory, and in 2016, carried by a wave of patriotic fervor, he nearly won the Olympic Gold medal!
It isn’t purely coincidence that Del Potro defeated Nadal in both of those aforementioned events—he’s one of the best big-stage players in tennis and he proved that earlier this spring when he rocked (and socked it to) Federer in the Indian Wells final. Federer was on a 17-match winning streak in California in March but Del Potro wasn’t having any of it. He stepped up and took the Swiss in a third-set breaker, proving to all the world that on the big stages, Del Potro has a little something extra to give.
Here in Paris he may prove that again. I didn’t believe it was possible but now that I’ve witnessed him power through 12 consecutive sets with relative ease, I’m thinking that if he can get past Marin Cilic (no small task, mind you) without too much trouble, he’ll be in as good as shape as he can possibly be for a showdown with the King of Clay on Chatrier.
Nadal’s been an absolute beast in Paris (comme toujours), and I don’t expect him to fall. But it sure would be nice to see him put to work. Did you know that Nadal has won 83 matches lifetime at Roland Garros and 65 of those wins have come in straight sets? Another 14 have gone four sets and two men have taken Nadal to five (there have been mercifully, two retirements).
What would be most memorable is to see Nadal have to truly defend his turf in Paris against an opponent who was game for taking a crack at him. We got an indication of what that might look like in the first round when Italy’s Simone Bolelli played the match of his life but still fell in straight sets. It was nice to see Nadal forced to go to the well and produce his most glimmering offerings.
Wouldn’t it also be nice if, before it’s all said and done, Nadal plays an epic match that goes down as one of his top three most captivating of all-time in Paris? Like Serena Williams on the women’s side, watching Nadal only gets more compelling when he is involved in a true tussle. When--as he likes to say--he is forced to suffer is when we see how formidable of an opponent he can be, how top-shelf his vintage is, and how darn near impossible he is to beat on the red clay.
His straight-sets thrashings possess a beauty all their own as well, but 37 completed sets in a row is just a tad too devoid of drama. Of course, the race in the lower half of the draw, where Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic are all battling tooth-and-nail for the right to play the final, is full of mystery, and it’s awesome.
I’m just saying that we could use a bit of that awesome sauce on the top half, and if anybody can make it happen, it’s Juan Martin del Potro.
No offense to Diego and Marin, but facing Nadal on Chatrier, that’s a towering task that this year might be only fit for a tower.