{"id":2091,"date":"2026-04-26T15:30:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T15:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2091"},"modified":"2026-04-26T15:30:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T15:30:59","slug":"novak-djokovic-get-very-interesting-verdict-from-former-grand-slam-finalists-ahead-of-french-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/?p=2091","title":{"rendered":"Novak Djokovic get \u2018very interesting\u2019 verdict from former Grand Slam finalists ahead of French Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic<\/a> has yet to confirm if or when he will play his first match on a clay court in 2026, but the Serbian legend has already been given his biggest boost after it was confirmed that defending champion Carlos Alcaraz will<\/a> not be competing at the French Open.<\/p>\n

Djokovic was beaten by Jannik Sinner<\/a> in last year\u2019s Roland Garros semi-finals, with the comprehensive manner of his defeat leaving many observers to conclude the veteran will struggle to get past the Italian or Alcaraz in a best-of-five-set match on clay at this phase of his career.<\/p>\n

A challenge for Wimbledon appeared to be his most likely route to what would be a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title, but former British No 1 Greg Rusedski has suggested Alcaraz\u2019s wrist injury has changed the dynamics around the second Grand Slam of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, Wimbledon is the one Novak could win, but all of a sudden Roland Garros has gotten rather interesting on the men\u2019s side,\u201d said Rusedski on an Off Court Cuts slice of his podcast.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, Sinner is the hot favourite, but let\u2019s see how the expectation is there because the expectation has been on two guys. It\u2019s been about Sinner. It\u2019s been about Alcaraz and now everybody\u2019s saying Sinner, Sinner, Sinner. It\u2019s going to put a little bit more pressure, a little bit more expectation on Sinner.<\/p>\n

More Tennis News<\/h2>\n

Madrid Open withdrawals and retirements: 30 stars out as Iga Swiatek among 3 WTA players to join list<\/a><\/p>\n

Former British No 1 says Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s injury nightmare \u2018puts a lot of things in doubt\u2019 amid Wimbledon claim<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNow, there\u2019s a lot of people saying, okay, Carlos is out of the French Open. I don\u2019t have to beat Alcaraz and Sinner back to back to win a major.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s gonna be interesting to see what Novak shows up in Rome. All of a sudden he\u2019s thinking, hmm, maybe there\u2019s an opportunity here. [Alexander] Zverev will be thinking the same thing and he\u2019s been the most consistent guy out there apart from Alcaraz and Sinner.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden, players are starting to think maybe there\u2019s a little bit more belief because it\u2019s only one guy on one given day that you have to come through, not both of them back to back.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there are a lot of people thinking what an opportunity. The other guy who\u2019s a little dark horse is Arthur Fils, who won in Barcelona. He\u2019s playing well as well and being a Frenchman in France, that is a big deal. So all of a sudden people are thinking \u2018what an opportunity\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite suggesting the chasing pack may be encouraged by the absence of the defending French Open champ over the next few weeks, Rusedski believes the biggest winner could be the dominant Sinner, who lost after having two match points in the Roland Garros final against Alcaraz last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been by far the better player since the end of the Australian Open,\u201d added the 1997 US Open finalist.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s won every Masters Series to date. I have a sneaky feeling he might win in Madrid and Rome, but the one in Paris is the one that hurt him last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe also wants to complete that career Grand Slam, as Alcaraz did it in Australia I feel that Sinner is the hot favourite to do that right now.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe needs some sort of freak accident to stop him because he\u2019s just putting himself in a different level than everybody else at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s incredible on the court and he\u2019s one of the strongest guys mentally I\u2019ve ever seen. Physically, he\u2019s left no stone unturned in diet preparation. So, he has a little added pressure now without Alcaraz, but I think he\u2019s looking forward to the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: French Open withdrawals: Carlos Alcaraz out and Emma Raducanu may follow him<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Novak Djokovic get \u2018very interesting\u2019 verdict from former Grand Slam finalists ahead of French Open<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Novak Djokovic has yet to confirm if or when he will play his first match on a clay court in 2026, but the Serbian legend has already been given his biggest boost after it was confirmed that defending champion Carlos Alcaraz will not be competing at the French Open. Djokovic was beaten by Jannik Sinner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2091\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}