By Matt Hill
Over the last several years the Road to Roland Garros which usually starts in Charleston and Houston in the United States has seen a facelift recently. Until the last two or three years, there were several weeks of smaller tournaments leading to the two Masters 1000s in May from Madrid and Rome,
Those days are long gone and now the two main Masters 1000s in the Road to Roland Garros are two-week events that actually begin on Tuesday in Madrid with the Mutua Madrid Open starting up with WTA action. While debate will always go on about whether this is a good thing or not, one thing it does do is give players a day off between matches so there is not as much stress on the body. The downside is if you lose early, there are not a lot of options to get matches played heading into Roland Garros. Some of these two-week events are having accelerated challengers if players lose. It is great for the fans who get to see two mini-majors before Roland Garros. There are pros and cons both ways, but overall, there are probably more positives than negatives.
Looking at the Madrid tournament, the most gaping hole is the fact the 24-time grand slam winner Novak Djokovic is taking a break these next two weeks and not playing in the event. This probably means he plans to play Rome, where the conditions are similar to Roland Garros.
In a little bit of a surprise considering this has been his weakest clay court Masters, Rafael Nadal is playing Madrid, but most likely because this is a home tournament and he wants to say goodbye to the fans in what looks to be his final year on tour. We will have more on the apparent Nadal farewell tour next week.
On the women’s side, the defending champion is Aryna Sabalenka but I am not sure if she really comes in as the favorite right now considering the very rough couple of months she has had in her personal life. The Road to Roland Garros seems to have two favorites right now, Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina.
With the conditions being faster with more altitude than usual, they probably favor Rybakina more than Swiatek. It will also be interesting to see if anyone can break the Big 3 stranglehold and win this event.
IS MUGURUZA A HALL OF FAMER?
Garbine Muguruza is a two-time slam winner and a former world No. 1 and is the only player to defeat Venus and Serena Williams in grand slam finals. She also was very up and down in her career and was never consistently at the top of the game. The Spainard and former Roland Garros and Wimbledon champion retired this week and now she will await her call from Newport, Rhode Island and the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Let’s look at whether Muguruza is a true Hall of Famer?
There are both men and women in Newport who have only won one slam. It is debatable whether one-slam wonders really belong. Three slams are automatic, meaning a player like Stan Wawrinka will be in there five years after he retires even though he only has one Masters 1000 title. Winning two and being ranked No. 1 in the world seems to be good enough to make and defeating Serena and Venus in slam finals is a bonus, but I think you also have to look at the inconsistency she had during her career. In her final few years Muguruza was always a dangerous floater but never really threatened after winning Wimbledon in 2017. I do think that is a little bit of a red flag. Still, though winning two slams proved Muguruza was not a one-slam wonder. She proved she was a legit player and getting to No. 1 in the world even if Serena Williams was on maternity leave showed just how talented. I say she definitely gets that call from the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
