The French Tennis Federation (FFT) shamelessly sang about giving ‘wild cards’ (invitations) to the main draws of men’s and women’s singles at Roland Garros, played in Paris from May 25 to June 9.
Of the sixteen distributed, twelve were for tennis players from the country. The maximum, because he owes four trading card exchanges in the United States (US Open) and Australia (Open).
The contest was deliberately left to the British Emma Raducanu, former champion in the US Open and coming from an injury, which will be low because he finally did not accept to go through the preliminary phase screening. Yes, players of the Austrian’s caliber will try to break in this way Dominic Thiem and the Argentine Diego Schwartzman, who played an important role and were tired in the last months of their sports career, because they announced their retirement when the season ended.
The treatment of Thiem was remarkable. At 30 years old and number 117 in the world, he has not yet recovered from a wrist injury and had to opt for a premature goodbye after finding himself unable to reach his best level and the joint continuing to cause pain.
Thiem He is the world No. 3, US Open champion in 2020. Before the injury he was proclaimed the natural successor to Rafael Nadal in clay. If not for the fourteen-time dominator of Roland Garros, he would have won in Paris. But he lost four times against the Spaniard, two semifinals (2016 and 2017) and a pair of finals (2018 and 2019), consecutively.
Roland Garros put this history aside, remembering more the last three early losses of ‘Domi’, who has not won the tournament since the round of 16 in 2020. He lost in the quarterfinals against Diego Schwartzmanwith whom he posed in an image before they faced ‘qualifying’.
Thiem opens this Monday against the Italian Franco Agamemnon at the Suzanne Lenglen Track, the complex’s second stadium and which will debut a retractable roof in 2024. A proposal also undertaken with an eye on the Olympic Games.
Source: La Verdad
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