Before I preview Wimbledon, I need to write my 10 things to take away from the two weeks that were at the 2019 French Open. In the words of Rafael Nadal: "Vamos!"
#1. Rafael Nadal is unstoppable on clay: I picked Rafael Nadal to win it all at Roland Garros and he did not disappoint me, defeating Dominic Thiem 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 in the final. This is Nadal's 12th French Open title and 18th grand slam title overall. At 33 years of age, there's no reason to doubt his ability to win at least a couple of more French Opens before he hangs up his tennis shoes. Nobody else on tour seems to have the goods to dethrone him any time soon.
#2. Ashleigh Barty is the real deal: Ashleigh Barty navigated the crazy maze that is women's tennis to win her first grand slam title at Roland Garros, defeating Marketa Vondrousova 6-1, 6-3 in the final. While it was a wide open field, Barty deserves a lot of credit for getting across the finish line. Her 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 win over Amanda Anisimova in the semifinals was incredibly gutty. She's now ranked #1 in the world, so she's going to have to get used to playing with a bigger target on her back. I'm confident she can handle it.
#3. Dominic Thiem isn't ready to win Roland Garros: While he is the #2 clay player in the world, Dominic Thiem did nothing to convince me that he's going to be the one to knock Nadal off his perch as the king of clay. While clay is his best surface, Thiem sadly might have better odds winning a grand slam on a non-clay surface. At least for the next little while.
#4. Is Marketa Vondrousova a one hit wonder? If you are an artist that has one track peak at #2 on the charts you are deemed a one hit wonder, so it's fair to say that if you reach one grand slam final your whole career you too are a one hit wonder of tennis. Outside of her run to the final at this year's French Open, Marketa hasn't done much at grand slams (2nd round at Australian Open, 1st round at Wimbledon, and 4th round at US Open). It'll be interesting to see if she'll start to be a consistent presence in the second week of grand slams or if she'll fade.
#5. Roger Federer should play on clay more often: While he didn't win the title like he hoped, Roger Federer had a really good run to the semifinals before falling to Nadal 3-6, 4-6, 2-6. That straight set beatdown shouldn't discourage him from playing future French Opens. If anything, it gives him a little bit of momentum going into Wimbledon and the fans certainly like to watch him play. It'll be interesting to see if Federer will return to Roland Garros next year.
#6. American women's tennis has a bright future, even on clay: Despite Serena Williams going down in the third round, American women's tennis did really well at Roland Garros. For starters, it was an American Sofia Kenin that took her out. Secondly, there were four Americans (Madison Keys, Sofia Kenin, Amanda Anisimova, and Sloane Stephens) in the fourth round, three in the quarterfinals (Keys, Anisimova, and Stephens), and one in the semifinals (Anisimova). That's pretty good for a country that favors the hard courts.
#7. Novak Djokovic should be disappointed: If you are Novak Djokovic, the only acceptable outcome at Roland Garros outside of winning the whole tournament would be to lose a hard fought battle to Rafael Nadal in the final. That did not happen to Djokovic as he instead lost to Dominic Thiem in the semifinals 2-6, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, 5-7. Luckily for Djokovic, he has Wimbledon coming up soon.
#8. Naomi Osaka needs to pick it up on the clay: Despite having won the US Open and Australian Open, Naomi Osaka flamed out in the third round at Roland Garros, which is consistent with 2018 and 2016. Osaka has similarly never gotten past the third round at Wimbledon (2017 and 2018), so we can talk about that more in a few days, but it is suffice to say that if Osaka wants to be ranked #1 in the world more consistently, she's going to have to pick it up on the non-hard court surfaces.
#9. Alexander Zverev did what he needed to do: Alexander Zverev lost in the quarterfinals to Novak Djokovic 7-5, 6-2, 6-2, which while disappointing is exactly what he needed to do at an absolute minimum. He got a bad draw as the #5 seed having to face the #1 seed in the quarterfinals, so all things considered, he should feel ok about how Roland Garros turned out. For now anyways. He'll have to pick it up in future years and at future grand slams later this year.
#10. Simona Halep should be disappointed as well: Another player that should be disappointed with how they played at Roland Garros is Simona Halep, who fell to Amanda Anisimova 2-6, 4-6 in the quarterfinals. Halep came in as the #3 seed and defending champion, so to fall in the quarterfinals to an unseeded player is really a bummer.
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