FRENCH OPEN PREVIEW: Biggest Breakouts, Best Matches, Aaron's Picks

The French Open finally starts on Sunday. We're doing our kickoff break on Fnatics Live on Sunday with a case of Royalty and Chrome cases that we want to see you guys there. But for today on Serving Slabs, we are doing a preview of the draw. The draws came out for both the women's and the men's and I went out and filled out my brackets for both. Right now we'll start with the women's, we'll move on to the men's. I'll talk about some players who I think can break out the French Open on both sides and really excited to get into this. If I'm looking to my right during this episode, it's because my bracket, my screens on the right. But you guys can just look at the bracket. If you're watching on YouTube or Instagram and if you're listening on podcast, try to follow along. But I'm going to talk through not every single pick, but I'm just going to go over some of the better first round matchups in both WTA and ATP and then get to my round of 16/4, semis and finals. So on the women's side we've got a big round of 16 right away here we've got Eva Jovic and Alexandra Ayala playing in the first round. The two youngsters Jovic into the top 20 and and then after that Jovic would have to have a rematch against Navarro from Straussberg. She has lost to Navarro, which is great to see Emma Navarro back. So I do think that Ev Yovich ends up getting through Emma Navarro when they play, if they play again. I think stabling has got a pretty easy way to get to the round of 32 and round of 16. But you know, her first round match isn't necessarily easy, but for Sabanka it should be then in Boco. I want to talk about Boko because she's sitting right here and as you can see, she should get to the round of 64 pretty easily and then has to beat Cinnia Cova to get to round 32. But that would set her up with a Mass and Keys match in the third round, which is not exactly who you want to be facing. I believe Keys was a quarter finalist last year at the French Open, has struggled this year, especially just with the, you know, injuries over the last year or so since she won ao. But you never know. Keys can definitely win a match at any given time, even if you are a top 10 player. And then you've got Pigula here who's got pretty good Path. Coco has got a pretty good path as well. Did have a pretty good tournament. I believe that was in Madrid where she was a lucky loser made to the semifinal. But then you've got. What do we have up next here? Some nothing too crazy in these sections, but who I do want to point out is Kinwan Jang, who I think has got a really, really good draw to go pretty far in this tournament. She's unseated here at the French Open and she's a previous gold medal winner at Roland Garros for the 2020. What was that, 2024 Olympics. But man, I think that she's got a really, really good shot to go far here. Now that she's unseated, she'd have to play Mertens, then dusk of who I think she can win both those matches. Next up, An Samova. This is gonna be your first clay match of the year at the French Open. I think that I think she can win some, but mostly because her draw is not too hard to get to the round of 16. But I mean, it's gonna be really hard walking in and playing your first clay match of the year at the French Open, having no, you know, true match practice before that. Obviously she's been practicing, but, you know, she's pulled out a couple tournaments with some wrist injury problems. I think our left wrist, it's not her. Her right hand wrist, but yeah, she will see how she does. Svitolina is definitely the one to watch. I think the dark horse, you know, she. She just had a insane Rome Open final win with a crazy run to get there. So I think that she can do some damage early here for sure. And then any other matchups stick out to me. Let's see. Costa, you can. Layla Fernandez would be an interesting third round for sure. And any others? No, I don't think any of those are too. Actually, this one is a pretty crazy one. Chris Christella and Paolini in the third round and then also Baptiste and Robakin in the third round, if you remember. Obviously, Baptiste just beat Sabalenka in Madrid, I believe, which was Sabalenka. She lost before the final there. And then Sabine lost again to Christia at Rome. So, uh, that will be a very, very interesting lower section of the bracket for the round of 32. All right, moving on to get to the good stuff, to the round of 16. End of the semis. So I got that Sabine and Yovich rematch from the Australian Open. I still think Sabine comes on top of that. Like, I'm not betting against Sabine Grand Slams right now until the semis at the very latest or earliest. Excuse me, in the tournament. I think in BoCo has one of the hardest Grand Slam runs that we have seen in recent years. Like if she wins all the matches, which will be very difficult to do. Keys's AO run was insane. Having to beat Rybakina, IGA and Sabalenka to win Australian Open last year. But this would include Keys, it include Pula and include Sabalenka and possibly Coco. And then if she beats Coco would have to include R. Bakan or iga if those are the two that make one of the two makes the final or possibly Mira Andre. But it has to be one of the hardest Grand Slam setups that there can be. She basically faces all of the potential highest seeds at any given round that's remaining as a top 10 player. It's really brutal to be completely honest for her. So we'll see how she's playing come the French Open. She's still in Straussberg right now, I think playing Layla Fernandez as I speak. But yeah, so that's, that's what you got there. Moving down the list, I think. I think I'd have to jump a little further here. Yeah, go to the Coco one. So Coco, I got her making the round of 16 pretty easily. Count sky has got a pretty fortunate draw, I'd say to get to the round of 16. She might not make it. Any upset can happen obviously, but she doesn't really have any one, two, two difficult one there. I'll tell you. Gibson played well on the hard courts, but I don't think she's really done a whole lot on the clay yet. And then that's where I have the first non seeded player making the round of 16, Kinwen Zhang. I've got her making it and playing against Anova and then beating Ana Smova. Getting to Coco Golf in the quarters and then yeah, losing to Coco. And then after that I've got Smitalina getting to the round 16 against bench, Kasuyuk against Iga with Iga losing the who she just lose to last tournament. Yes, Finolina. So I got IGA being Kosuka, then replaying Svitolina and beating Svitolina. Mira Andreva with a tough one here in the round 16 against Carolina Mohova. That's a really hard one. Mohova is a French Open finalist, so you don't want to see her in the round 16. But she will have to if she gets there, if both them win and, and then rebakka beating Chris. This is where it starts to get interesting for me. So I've got Sabalenka over in Boco. I have Coco over Kimwanjang, the IGA over Spina, and then the Mira over Rocket has looked shaky. I'd say she did not close out that match well in the slightest. Obviously she lost to Svitolina in Rome and that's got me cause for concern with her. Um, I know that she's been the second best player this whole season, one Australian Open, but I'm still concerned about her on clay. Specifically, I will be picking Rebakka to win Wimbledon, though I think she'll win her second Wimbledon this year. So that would be next Grand Slam. You'll probably see me pick that winner for that one. So you get to the semis, you got Sabalenka and Coco, which is a great match because why? Because that's the rematch of last year's French Open final and the 2023 US Open final. Coco won both of those Grand Slams. And last year, Sabalenka lost to Anova at the semis in at Wimbledon. So very, very interesting here. I think that Coco does beat Sabalenka because Sabulinka is look shaky on the clay so far. A couple losses earlier than the final, you'd say, wow, that's not bad, really, actually. And then you say, oh, it's that blanket. We all expect her to make the final. So that's why, you know, I think she's just. She just doesn't look as on it at this moment on the clay. And Coco had a really good tournament in Rome, having come through a lot of those matches in three sets. Like, did she look shaky at times? 100%. But she won a ton of them. And she also played amazing against Chris, who Sabine lost to Coco. Serve has looked better. She had one double fault, I believe, in the match against Cristeo. And you know, she had some times in the spring Vitalina match where she obviously wasn't great, which is why she ended up losing that in three sets. But then I got IGA and Mira Andreva. So at this point, I will reveal the semis in the final for the women's. And I've got. Well, I thought I was going to. Let me. Give me one second here. I will reveal the semis in the final for the women's. And we have got. Working on it, Coco versus Mira. I've got Coco being Sabalinka, Mira being iga, and then for the winner got Coco winning for her Second straight year now that's gonna be very, very, very hard to do. But the biggest reason why I have her winning this is because I do just think this match up against Mira and Drava for Coco, she's 5, 0 against her. Eventually I think Mira will get over that hump. But I'm taking the two time experience Grand Slam winner. These are my two favorite women's players. You actually can see them right there. I got both their golds up here on my, on my stands right now. But I just think that like if Coco gets the final against Mira, it's really getting over. The Sabalenka one is I think going to be the hardest obviously of the ball, number one player. It's not a shock to say that, but I just, I just think if she gets there, she gets it done. Now will she get there? That's the question. I think. Can she serve well throughout the tournament? That's the question. Can she lean into our forehand? That's the question. But we'll find out. If you guys want to, you know, let me know in the comments who you have winning the women's French Open, please do so now. I'd love to see who you guys all pick to win. And I'm going to now go back to the point where it looked like this. I think, sorry, it's my first time ever doing this live and, or I guess on a podcast recording. And we're going to flip to the men's which I actually think I need to then scroll like this. Boom. All right, so as for the men's, I gotta reselect the men's now. We are going to go over similarly. I'll try to be a little bit better about when I'm navigating this. Like I said my first time doing this, so bear with me. But Sinners got an absolute cupcake draw to the final. Like absolute cupcake draw, to be completely honest. I mean his heart. His highest ranked opponent he'd have to play to get to the final is Felix O.J. eliasim, who's won like one match on clay this entire season and, and blew a 4 to 1 third set lead against four game to one against Kovacevich at wherever they were playing Humberg. So I think that Sinner's gonna make the final. Like completely. He actually will make the final, I think without dropping instead. If he does, it'll be only one. And if you, as you can see here. So his round of 16 would end up being on my bracket. Ethan Quinn, I actually might skip ahead on these men's because there's a little bit less interesting first round matches than the women's in my opinion. Let me skip ahead. I do have some those Obviously those around 64 picks but what you guys probably really care about is once we get to the round of 32 and that's going to be where we get the interesting matches. So first matchup center and Landa Luce. The land of Luce's had a pretty crazy season to be completely honest. Lucky loser into Roman did really well there. My breakout for the tournament is going to be Ethan Quinn. He did really well here last year. I think he's got a really favorable draw. Hardest match will be going through Dard who I think is a complete nutter to be honest. If you guys have ever watched the Dard match you would probably agree with me. If you don't then you're Italian or you love Dardari one of the two and then Quinn will can get through that and beat Rena Kanesh and get to center get smoked by sinner probably. We got two Americans facing off here, Tiafo and Shelton. Biggest reason for that is I just think Bublek like did great in clay last year but hasn't really like I feel like shown that he can stick in that top 10 as of the last few months. So I'm going to take TFO here and he had a good run last year too at first French Open so he's got some pressure. Maybe he rises to the occasion. Shelton over city pots to get that match then Shelton being Tiafo. I got Altmeyer versus Vachero in the round of 16 which is by far like Vachero as a 16 seed is expected to make the round of 16 so I got him in there but Altmire would be my other breakout next to Ethan Quinn and he's the one that plays FAA Round one. I have FAA losing round one. Altmire is a very tough opponent, just beat Shelton at Hamburg, had some good results last year on the clay and I really think that's a terrible matchup for FAA like that is just brutal to get that round one especially FAA being bad on clay right now. So I got Altmeyer Vash from the round 16, Caboli being TN and Kaboli playing against Medvedev who I do have Monfis getting to round to 32 in his final French Open. He will have the crowd on side for every match. Last year's match against Draper was electric. Draper beat him there but I've got Medi coming through and getting to the round of 16 got Alex Demour against Mario Navone, which is a very brutal draw for Demon to get him in round of 32. Navon has been one of the best clay players this season, but do have Demon coming through that and then having to play another Argentinian clay quarter, Thomas Martin Echever, who's also been one of the best clay quarters this season. But I think Demon rises the occasion. He's looked much better this this tournament in Hamburg right now. This one. I'm really bummed about this. I love Rude. I love Tommy Paul. They would meet in the round of 32 if they both win and get there. So I've got the meaning round of 32. I think Casper is just playing too well right now to not make it to the round of 16, but I easily could see Tommy Paul make the round of 16. I love Tommy Paul, he's super cool. My wife is obsessed with him too. So I hope that Tommy Paul does end up making it to the round of to the round of 16 over rude. Although I take either of them. I like both but they have got a hard one in store. And next guy I'll talk about is Djokovic. Djokovic has got one of the hardest draws out of anyone in this compared to Zverev's draw and it's. It's way different. But you've got Djokovic having to play Fonseca or Prismic. Prismic beat Djokovic at Rome and Prismic also beat Shelton in Madrid. So I'd not be shocked if Prismich just keeps on this Terror and beats Fonseca as much as I like Fonseca. But it's either going to be Prismic or for Seca. Then it'll be Casper Rude and then Alex D Minor and then possibly Zverev or in my opinion Archer Feast, which we can get to next. But yeah, hard one for Novak for sure, man. Brutal draw for him. But I do see him getting to the final and playing center, which I just spoiled it I guess. But I've got Mickelson beating Taylor Fritz and then playing Rafa Hodar, which I've got Hodar getting to the quarters as well. And then yeah, I guess my next big one would be Feast versus Zverev in the round of 16 with Feast beating Zverev. That is Zverev's by far hardest match up to that point. And I do think Feast beats him. And then we got especially with that home crowd. That crowd will be cooking Feast and Hodar would be a Sick match. You got the 19 year old breakout Spanish going against Feast, the Frenchman and yeah, I think Feast is going to beat him. Then Joe Demon Donut. I do not see Demon stopping Novak. He won a set off of him in at Wimbledon last year. But I just, I just don't see the goat losing him at French Open in Grand Slam. Medvedev and Vashro got Medi coming through. As crazy as it seems, Medi lost double bagel to Baratini to start the clay season, which is insane. That is I think his first double bagel of his career and to Baratina nonetheless, who's barely won on clay in the last like two years. But I guess Medi's definitely turned around because he took a set off a center and looked pretty decent at Rome. And then you got Sinner and Shelton. So Sinner and Shelton in the quarters. Really brutal draw once again for Ben Shelton. Having to get Janik Sinner before a semifinal is just not what you want to see for him. He has not taken a set off of him I think in like six or seven matches, something like that. I've got Sinner rolling and then playing Medi. I got Sinner being Mehdi. The only caveat here is if Mehdi can do what he did against Cinder at Rome and push him and push him and push him and get him to the fifth set. That could really turn the tides for Mehdi. We've seen Sinner kind of lose gas in these matches. Even in the third set against and Rome he was struggling really badly. Some sort of combination of heat and Medi just grinding points out. I would not be shocked if we do actually see Mehdi. I guess I would be shocked. I'll take it back. I will be shocked if we see Mehdi beat center. I wouldn't be shocked if he gets it to the fifth set and then he beats center, I should say. The thing is though is that center could easily win in straight sets and it'd be over. So that's the difference. And then Novak and Feast, I got Novak's taking over Feast even with the French crowd. And let's reveal what I have here in the final. Yep, Novak and center and center winning. So that's what my head tells me. My heart tells me. Novak though, like I know it's the French Open. I know it's clay, I know it's going to be grinding points. I know he just lost a prismic. He did get super sick in the second set though. He's puking on the court. So I'M not going to take that match for, you know, what can happen at the French Open, but I gotta think it's either French Open or Wimbledon, one of the two. I really think Novak can win one of the two. Wimbledon's definitely more likely to. But I'm still going to say my heart says that, you know, I want Novak to win this and get his 25th slam here, especially with Alcaraz out, which haven't even brought that up the whole time. But yeah, I'm super pained about that as a huge Alcaraz fan not having that French Open or Wimbledon this year. But that's how injuries go. So don't forget. Guys, make sure you join this upcoming Sunday Stream French Open kickoff show on Fanatics Live. We'll have giveaways, we'll have the huge 4 case break with 21 chrome, 24 chrome, 25 chrome and 24 royalty. There I think is under 40 random spots left of the 102, so mostly sold out. We hope to see you guys there. Let me know you guys have winning the men's French Open. Drop me all of your predictions in the comments and we'll see you guys in the next serving slabs on Monday.