Stefanos Tsitsipas begins his French Open on Sunday afternoon with what should be a fairly straight forward opener. He plays Jiri Vesely for the second time in his career, having met the Czech in the early stages of his career on the Challenger Tour. The Greek won in three sets, winning a final set tiebreak against the then top seed in Rome back in 2017.
Until his return at the Ostrava Challenger last month, Vesely had not played a competitive match in around 9 months. He picked up a couple of wins to make the quarter finals but failed to build on that in Prague a few weeks later, losing in the opening round to Pablo Llamas Ruiz.
Tsitsipas is one of four men in within a chance of taking the World No.1 ranking following this tournament. The Greek will likely be disappointed with his failure to take a title over the earlier parts of the clay swing, which would have put up in much better shape in his hunt for the No.1 spot. His most recent outing came in Rome, eventually losing in the semi finals to Daniil Medvedev. He was unable to hold his nerve in the latter stages of each set in that match, falling to a 7-5 7-5 loss.
Tsitsipas may have been below his best in recent months but there should be no issues for him at least in this one. Vesely was rarely much of a threat on clay in the better stages of his career and certainly will not be ready for a tough five setter so early into a return after more than six months out.
Prediction – Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets
