Andy Roddick names his ‘safest choice’ dark horse for French Open
There is no doubt that Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic will no doubt be the players to beat at the French Open and Andy Roddick believes there is one “safe choice” as an outside bet.
Alcaraz has won back-to-back titles at Roland Garros as he beat Alexander Zverev in five sets in the 2024 final while last year’s showpiece match against Sinner also went the distance with the Spaniard saving three match points to win the title.
The seven-time Grand Slam winner and Sinner have been the standout players at Grand Slams the past few years – sharing the last nine majors between them – while Djokovic has been the best of the rest.
Those three will once again top the list of favourites for the clay-court Grand Slam, but who is the dark horse?
According to former world No 1, Zverev is well clear of the rest of the pack as he stated on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast: “Zverev. I mean, he’s been in the final. He’s won Masters Series on it.
“Like, you go back and you recreate his career and you take out those names you just said [Alcaraz, Sinner, Djokovic], and he’s looking at five or six Slams. That’s not the way the world works. I wish it did, personally, but, like, yeah, Zverev.
“But then you take those names out of it, and then all of a sudden, you have ten people who are, like, you know, [Arthur] Fils catches a gear, and they’re like, I don’t know, why not?”
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Four of Zverev’s even ATP Masters 1000 titles have come on clay while he has also reached four semi-finals at Roland Garros and two quarter-finals, including last year when he was beaten by Djokovic.
Roddick went on to give a detailed explanation about why he feels Zverev is a safe bet as he also highlighted the world No 3’s weaknesses.
“I mean, Zverev. He’s not a clay-court specialist. It might not even be his best surface,” he said. “Well, he knows how to play. He plays great on clay. Like, he needs more… On that forehand, like, his biggest weakness is what, the forehand? When someone rushes into that side. Clay, you have more time.
“His ball flight is loopy. That plays better on clay. He moves well on clay, especially for someone as big as he is. He would be the safest choice, but, I mean, the odds for 10 players would look significantly different [if not for Alcaraz, Sinner, Djokovic].”
