Novak Djokovic snubbed as French Open contender while Rafael Nadal included in list

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Novak Djokovic was notably absent from a list of French Open favourites following his early loss in Monte Carlo. Retired former world No 5 and one of the Serb’s friends Daniela Hantuchova admitted Rafael Nadal, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Carlos Alcaraz were the three players with the best chance to win the upcoming Grand Slam, leaving the defending champion out of her prediction.

Djokovic’s recent lack of competition has already appeared to affect his standing ahead of his French Open title defence, having played just two tournaments so far this season with his most recent showing an opening round defeat at the Monte Carlo Masters, where then-world No 46 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina dispatched him 6-3 6-7(5) 6-1. Holding a 2-2 win-loss record for the season, retired pro-turned-pundit Hantuchova has overlooked the world No 1 when listing the contenders for the French Open.

The seven-time title winner backed Tsitsipas as the current favourite off the back of his title defence at the Monte Carlo Masters, telling Amazon Prime: “Obviously Stefanos now I think he’s leading the list and he’s got all the momentum going into the rest of the clay court tournaments.” She also tipped the Greek as the favourite to win the next two Masters 1000 events in the lead-up to the French Open, despite Djokovic finally set to build some momentum this season as he has the Serbia Open, Madrid and Rome all lined up before his Grand Slam title defence.

“The biggest favourite to me for Madrid and Rome. Last year he was so close to win Paris being two sets to love against Novak, one of the most incredible comebacks there from Djokovic,” she said of Tsitsipas. Hantuchova also picked Nadal as one of the favourites, thanks to his record 13 titles at the event and his 20-1 win-loss record for the season, as well as backing 18-year-old Alcaraz following his maiden Masters 1000 title win in Miami.

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“Carlos is right there, he doesn’t need to win matches because we all believe he’s that good and he’ll be hungry to do well now in Madrid, Rome to start building the momentum himself,” she continued. “But together with Rafa to me those players are the big, big favourites.” Hantuchova, who has previously spoken about her friendship with Djokovic on Prime Video, noticeably left the defending French Open champion out of her list, despite praising his comeback from two sets down in last year’s final.

Djokovic has already been denied the chance to defend one of his Grand Slam titles from 2021 this season, as he was deported from the country on the eve of the Australian Open. It left Nadal to win his second title in Melbourne – 13 years on from the first – and allowed the Spaniard to break the record for most men’s singles Grand Slam titles in history with 21.

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The world No 1 has admitted his sights are already on the French Open ahead of his campaign in Belgrade this week. “Roland Garros is the quintessential clay-court tournament and I’m partly already there in my thoughts, in terms of preparation and everything I’m doing at the moment to get there as ready as I can be,” he said.

And Djokovic is hoping he can get some good omen from the Serbia Open after winning the tournament in the week before the French Open last year, as he added: “I had never before played a tournament in the week ahead of Roland Garros but last year I decided to do just that. Because it was Belgrade and I needed the feeling that the audience is the wind beneath my wings. It came true, I won the tournament, and it turned out I made a good decision ahead of the French Open.”

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