After looking at the Roland Garros 2008 men’s singles main draw, the only comment I can make is; the organizers could not make a better draw for Roger even if they were trying to cheat!
Confusing?
Let us make it simple, even if Roger Federer does his best to lose in his quarter, he just cannot because the draw is so easy. One can look as hard as one may want, trying to find a true challenger to Rogers walk into the semi-finals, but there is a vast empty place.
FEDERER, Roger SUI [1]
QUERREY, Sam USA
MONTANES, Albert ESP
VLIEGEN, Kristof BEL
CRIVOI, Victor ROU (Q)
MARRERO, David ESP (Q)
ANCIC, Mario CRO
SEPPI, Andreas ITA [31]
KARLOVIC, Ivo CRO [20]
FALLA, Alejandro COL
BENNETEAU, Julien FRA
SPADEA, Vincent USA
ZVEREV, Mischa GER
CAPDEVILLE, Paul CHI (Q)
SODERLING, Robin SWE
MONACO, Juan ARG [13]
WAWRINKA, Stanislas SUI [9]
KOHLSCHREIBER, Philipp GER
CILIC, Marin CRO
HAASE, Robin NED
ANDUJAR, Pablo ESP (L)
VOLANDRI, Filippo ITA
CUEVAS, Pablo URU
GONZALEZ, Fernando CHI [24]
ANDREEV, Igor RUS [27]
STARACE, Potito ITA
YOUNG, Donald USA
GINEPRI, Robby USA
SELA, Dudi ISR
HANESCU, Victor ROU
SERRA, Florent FRA
GASQUET, Richard FRA [8]
Will one of these players beat Roger? WAWRINKA, Stanislas SUI [9], GASQUET, Richard FRA [8], MONACO, Juan ARG [13], SEPPI, Andreas ITA [31], GONZALEZ, Fernando CHI [24], ANDREEV, Igor RUS [27]? Ney!
And what will the semi-finalist from the other top quarter look like?
DAVYDENKO, Nikolay RUS [4]
JOHANSSON, Thomas SWE
LISNARD, Jean-Rene MON (Q)
SAFIN, Marat RUS
JUNQUEIRA, Diego ARG (Q)
MANNARINO, Adrian FRA (W)
PRODON, Eric FRA (W)
LJUBICIC, Ivan CRO [28]
FERRERO, Juan Carlos ESP [23]
DANIEL, Marcos BRA
MELZER, Jurgen AUT
LUCZAK, Peter AUS
MONFILS, Gael FRA
CLEMENT, Arnaud FRA
JENKINS, Scoville USA (Q)
HORNA, Luis PER (L)
ROBREDO, Tommy ESP [12]
CORIA, Guillermo ARG
TROICKI, Viktor SRB
GICQUEL, Marc FRA
HUTA GALUNG, Jesse NED (Q)
VANEK, Jiri CZE
SIMON, Gilles FRA
STEPANEK, Radek CZE [21]
HEWITT, Lleyton AUS [25]
MAHUT, Nicolas FRA
CALLERI, Agustin ARG
FISH, Mardy USA
SANTORO, Fabrice FRA
MAYER, Florian GER
DARCIS, Steve BEL
FERRER, David ESP
Will the next Roger Federer slayer come from this group? DAVYDENKO, Nikolay RUS [4], FERRER, David ESP , FERRERO, Juan Carlos ESP [23], HEWITT, Lleyton AUS [25], STEPANEK, Radek CZE [21], Marat Safin, Ivan Lubicic, ROBREDO, Tommy ESP [12], CORIA, or Guillermo ARG? Ney!
So now we are looking at the final and…
The bottom side of the draw has most of the heavy weights in it!
BLAKE, James USA [7]
SCHUETTLER, Rainer GER
GREUL, Simon GER (Q)
GULBIS, Ernests LAT
ASCIONE, Thierry FRA
REYNOLDS, Bobby USA
LAPENTTI, Nicolas ECU
TIPSAREVIC, Janko SRB [32]
BAGHDATIS, Marcos CYP [17]
BOLELLI, Simone ITA
OUANNA, Josselin FRA (L)
DEL POTRO, Juan Martin ARG
LLODRA, Michael FRA
PATIENCE, Olivier FRA (W)
SMEETS, Robert AUS (W)
BERDYCH, Tomas CZE [11]
MOYA, Carlos ESP [16]
SCHWANK, Eduardo ARG (Q)
GRANOLLERS, Marcel ESP
BERRER, Michael GER
HERNANDEZ, Oscar ESP
MINAR, Ivo CZE
KUERTEN, Gustavo BRA (W)
MATHIEU, Paul-Henri FRA [18]
CANAS, Guillermo ARG [29]
ODESNIK, Wayne USA (W)
BJORKMAN, Jonas SWE
LEE, Hyung-Taik KOR
DANCEVIC, Frank CAN
LOPEZ JAEN, Miguel Angel ESP (Q)
GREMELMAYR, Denis GER
DJOKOVIC, Novak SRB [3]
NALBANDIAN, David ARG [6]
BERLOCQ, Carlos ARG
CHARDY, Jeremy FRA (W)
GIL, Frederico POR (Q)
GARCIA-LOPEZ, Guillermo ESP
ROITMAN, Sergio ARG
BRANDS, Daniel GER (Q)
TURSUNOV, Dmitry RUS [30]
ALMAGRO, Nicolas ESP [19]
PASHANSKI, Boris SRB
DECOUD, Sebastian ARG (L)
ROCHUS, Olivier BEL
HRBATY, Dominik SVK
ACASUSO, Jose ARG
EYSSERIC, Jonathan FRA (W)
MURRAY, Andy GBR [10]
YOUZHNY, Mikhail RUS [15]
BECKER, Benjamin GER
GONZALEZ, Maximo ARG (Q)
KARANUSIC, Roko CRO (Q)
ISNER, John USA
CHELA, Juan Ignacio ARG
VENTURA, Santiago ESP
VERDASCO, Fernando ESP [22]
NIEMINEN, Jarkko FIN [26]
LOPEZ, Marc ESP (L)
VASSALLO ARGUELLO, Martin ARG
LOPEZ, Feliciano ESP
GUCCIONE, Chris AUS
DEVILDER, Nicolas FRA (Q)
BELLUCCI, Thomaz BRA (Q)
NADAL, Rafael ESP
Who will be the finalist, to face a possible Roger, after a gargantuan struggle? NADAL, Rafael ESP 2 , DJOKOVIC, Novak SRB [3] , NALBANDIAN, David ARG [6], CANAS, Guillermo ARG [29], MURRAY, Andy GBR [10] or ALMAGRO, Nicolas ESP [19]?
After looking well at the top half, one can not help but say, this is chicken feed compared to the bottom half! How does this happen? Only the devil knows!
Will Rafael Nadal be able to fend off all the heavy weights? And how fresh will he be, if he gets to the final?
Sure that Nadal has the heart of a lion, but how will his body already breaking down in three set matches in Hamburg, going to fare in 5 set matches in Paris? Hard to tell, but certainly not an easy task ahead for Nadal or for whoever gets to the final from the bottom half!
On paper it really looks like a cake walk for Roger Federer all the way to the final and in all likelihood a pretty battered finalist will be at the mercy of his racket there, but will Roger make it into the final?
The signs are all saying, yes! Will he win?
If he does not with the draw he has got, the organizers next time might as well hand him the trophy before the tournament begins or he will never win the French!
Is this discrepancy in the strength of the top half versus the bottom half, Rogers fault? Are organizers biased in his favour? No! It is just the luck of the draw! And Roger will have to make the best of it, that is, if he wants to belong to that rare group of players that won all four grand slams in their careers.
As I have mentioned in the past these lopsided draws could be easily avoided if the tennis governing bodies ATP, ITF, WTA, took the following measures:
1. Keep the present ATP, WTA ranking to determine the best overall player on all surfaces (or most at least).
2. Create a ranking just for clay courts.
3. Create a ranking just for grass courts.
4. Create a ranking just for Indoor courts.
5. Create a ranking for hard courts.
This way the tournament organizers could seed the players by surface and the present discrepancies would no longer happen.
Let us see how the tournament unfolds and enjoy!
Ah! I promise you, I will shave my head bold if Roger does not win!
Sergio Cruz
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