After winning his eighth title at the Australian Open, Novak Djokovic has been bumped up to 3/1 to win back to back Grand Slam titles this year. He will be the joint second favourite behind Rafael Nadal to clinch the French Open title in 2020.
Going into the Australian Open as the second seed, Djokovic showed no mercy in getting to the final. It was here he looked like he was vulnerable after all as Dominic Thiem took a two sets to one lead before Djokovic came back to win in five.
And while Nadal will continue to remain a humongous favourite to win the title at Roland Garros yet again – he is a mere 10/11 (with bet365 here) to make it his 20th major – Djokovic cannot be counted out in the current form.
However, Djokovic’s fight for his own 18th major might not be against Nadal alone. Depending on the draw, he might need to eke out a victory against the Austrian Thiem as well and that might not b the easiest bet.
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Thiem has often been known to be a better clay-courter than his play on hard court, but his improvement on the latter surface has been one to marvel. And the way he stretched to Djokovic on what can well be described as his ‘home’ major, it looks like he is just a few inches here and there from winning his own maiden Grand Slam title.
32-year-old Djokovic, on the other hand, won his only French Open title in 2016 and has been a three-time finalist otherwise too. However, since that 2016 victory, Djokovic has been ousted twice in the quarterfinals and once in the semifinal.
In 2017 in fact, it was Thiem who sent Djokovic out packing in straight sets which was followed by a defeat to Marco Cecchinato in 2018 before the Austrian got the better of the Serb yet again in the 2019 edition of the tournament.
Djokovic will, however, take heart from the fact he managed to take Thiem to a fifth set in their previous meeting at Roland-Garros and it could well have been anyone’s game there.
With a bit of a luck with the draw, Djokovic might stand a decent chance at the French Open as well, but if one had to pick a winner between him and Thiem on clay at the moment, my money will be on the Austrian. The bigger question then would be if Thiem can maintain his hold on clay and make it as deep as possible before he faces any of the biggies at Roland-Garros.
This discussion obviously doesn’t speak about Nadal but that’s more to do with the fact the Spaniard is almost invincible on this surface. If Nadal can remain fit, he has given enough indication in recent times he is ready to challenge Roger Federer’s 20 Grand Slam titles. But between the remaining two, Thiem could just have reached a stage where a Grand Slam title looks ripe for his taking.
Get all the latest men’s predictions for the 2020 French Open here.
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