As the tournament at Roland Garros approaches we must ask the question. Can anyone stop Novak Djokovic achieving the career Grand Slam? The Career Grand Slam is obviously a difficult thing to accomplish. Only seven players to date have managed the feat, with only three being in the Open Era.
Fred Perry, Don Budge, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal are the only male players to have won all four Grand Slams. Laver and Emerson managed the career Slam twice.
Novak Djokovic is currently only missing the title at Roland Garros to join this list. Agassi and Federer can empathize with the Serb, as they both finally closed out their career Slam at the French Open.
Although ranked #1 in the world, Djokovic’s record at the French Open is not as good as at the other slams. Having won each of the six finals at the Australian Open he has reached, three wins out of four in the Wimbledon final, and two wins from six at the US Open, the Serb has made the French Open final three times and lost on each occasion.
Going into the 2015 French Open, the Serb was the favorite to win the title, only to lose out to Stan Wawrinka in the final, who claimed his second Grand Slam. Just like last year, the Serb will be under pressure from himself to finally win this event, and again is one of the favorites for the trophy. Djokovic will be focused on securing the one Grand Slam missing from his collection.
Who, then, if anyone, are the main contenders to prevent the Serb achieving the career grand slam this year?
Rafael Nadal
The undisputed “King of Clay” in the modern era. Nadal has won the title in Paris on nine occasions. Every time the Spaniard has been in the final of the French Open he has gone on to win the title. The last time Nadal won in Paris was in 2014.
During that season, Nadal had struggled with an injury affecting his performance, but managed to win his ninth title in Paris. The lack of form continued during the 2015 season as Nadal recovered from an operation to remove his appendix at the end of 2014.
Having made the final of the Madrid masters in 2015, he lost to Andy Murrayin straight sets, but Nadal was back where he belonged in finals. During the 2015 season, Nadal dropped outside the top five in the world for the first time since 2005.
Winning Monte Carlo and Barcelona this season has marked a return to clay form for the Spaniard. Losses to Murray (SF. Madrid) and Djokovic (QF. Rome) means there is still some work to do. In the match with the Serb Nadal held a break advantage in both sets, before the World #1 eventually overcame him in two tight sets 7-5, 7-6.
Nadal will be seeded fourth at the French and is still a threat to others. Until beaten in the final of “his” Slam, it is very difficult to uncrown and write off the Spaniard.
Andy Murray
Only a couple of years ago, putting the Brit into this would have seemed laughable with such a poor clay court record; Murray made the semifinal at the French open at the most and never went deep in other clay events.
Murray himself had previously stated that clay was his worst surface, never having won a clay title in his “senior” career. Knowing this was classed as the weakest surface of the Brit, three Davis Cup away ties were staged on clay, only one of those was lost by Great Britain.
The 2015 season saw the major breakthrough for the World #2 on the red dirt. Entering the ATP Munich event for the first time, Murray claimed his maiden title on the surface. Having to battle the weather and scheduling as rain effected a whole day’s play, meaning the Brit had to play two singles and one doubles match in the same day.
The Munich final also suffered a substantial delay due to rain, eventually being played on the Monday of the next week. The Brit battled hard against the German Philipp Kohlschreiber to take his first ever title on clay. The Brit now had title on every surface. Following straight on from Munich was the Madrid Masters.
The World #2 reached the final and defeated Nadal in straight sets to win his first clay Masters. In Paris that year, Murray took Djokovic to a thrilling five set semifinal before losing to the Serb.
In the 2016 season the Brit lost to Nadal in the semifinal of the Monte Carlo Master to Nadal, reached the final again in Madrid (L. Djokovic), before reaching the final in Rome. Here Murray scored only his second win over Djokovic since the Wimbledon final in 2013. Having not dropped a set all tournament the Brit demolished the Serb in straight sets.
Murray served well, and the second serve which is usually a weakness has certainly improved of late. There can be little doubt his clay form is now a viable force. The Brit was the only ATP player to reach the semi final or better in Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome. Do not discount Murray to win Roland Garros if he and Djokovic meet in the final (Murray will be seeded two, so on the opposite side of the draw).
Should Murray win in Paris, then he himself would be one Slam away from the career Slam.
(Fellow LWOS writer Jake Davies is so impressed with Murray’s clay performance that he thinks Murray is the favorite in Paris.)
Kei Nishikori
The Japanese really should have beaten Djokovic in Rome and came very close to doing so, pushing the Serb to a very tight three-set match lasting over three hours; a few errors were all that came between Nishikori and a “shock” victory in Rome.
Taking the World # the full distance on clay in a semifinal of a masters is something the Japanese can be very proud of. Tweaking one or two things to reduce the errors will make Nishikori a real threat the next time he comes up against the Serb.
Stan Wawrinka
The defending champion. Wawrinka’s current form is nothing to write home about, but the Swiss could well play himself into form for this event. Currently playing in Geneva and the top seed, he has had a couple of easy wins to reach the quarterfinals. It would be a slim possibility that the Swiss #2 could repeat last year’s victory to stop Djokovic, but if he finds his form from last year anything can happen.
Of course in a slam anything can happen, and someone not even mentioned throughout this article could spring a surprise and knock the World #1 out before he can even reach the final. It will certainly be an interesting event as always.
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