5 dark horses who could score big at the French Open 2016
Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka is reigning champion at the French Open, preventing World No. 1 Novak Djokovic from adding the Coupe de Mousquetaires to his trophy cabinet. Djokovic, although immensely successful on clay, has notoriously faltered at Roland Garros, repeatedly.
The Serb has made the finals on three occasions, losing on two of those occasions to King of Clay Rafael Nadal.
Nadal, considered perhaps the greatest clay court player in the history of the game, is himself looking for a tenth French Open title, completing his La Decima of titles here. Given his resurgence in form of late, it would not be remiss to believe that Nadal, who was plagued by injury in 2015, could take yet another title here.
We look at 5 outside challengers to the title this year:
Dominic Thiem
The Austrian youngster has not only been in good form, but doing well across surfaces. Dominic Thiem has this year already challenged Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and ousted Roger Federer from a tournament – only a sign of bigger things to him.
Thiem’s biggest problem this year has been his difficulty with break point conversions. At his first-round match against World No. 1 Novak Djokovic at the clay-court Miami Masters, it was definitely the Serb who had the advantage over his 22nd – ranked, much younger rival.
But the Austrian was in fine form as he challenged his top-ranked rival on the only surface he does not possess a Grand Slam – clay.
Thiem repeatedly broke Djokovic, with a total of 14 break points over the course of the match – and on repeated occasions had the opportunity to control the outcome.
Unfortunately, it was that inability that cost him a massive upset, one that could potentially have been the upset of the tournament.
The young Austrian would have walked away from the tournament a happy man regardless, however, given he was able to seriously tax the most dominant tennis player of the last five years, and that player also left the match impressed by Thiem’s skills.
Following his win, Djokovic revealed to the ATP he had been impressed with Thiem’s skill. “"Dominic is one of the leaders of this generation, no question doubt about it," Djokovic said. "He's already established himself as a Top 20 player the last couple years. He's getting stronger and more confident."
Thiem finished in the Round of 64 at the 2015 French Open, and although he did not progress beyond that round, seriously troubled a significantly more experienced Pablo Cuevas, taking the match to four close sets.