World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka had just won his first tournament of the season just in time for the French Open. The Swiss sensation took home the top prize this weekend in his home country at the Geneva Open – an ATP World Tour 250 series event held on clay – giving him great momentum entering Roland Garros.
Wawrinka, a former French Open champion, is looking to repeat his masterful performance in Paris from a couple of seasons ago. His 2017 campaign has been relatively impressive so far, having made the semifinal round or better in four of the nine tournaments he’s played in for a respectable 20-8 record year-to-date.
That goes without saying, though, that the 32-year-old has had his fair share of shortcomings, as two of his eight losses this season have come at the hands of Roger Federer in the Finals of Indian Wells and the semis of the Australian Open. Then again, Federer is nowhere to be found in the French Open’s draw this year, so he can breathe a little easier without having to worry about another possible clash against his fellow Swiss in the tournament.
Wawrinka loves to play on clay, as his 167-82 lifetime record on the turf would suggest (67.1-percent winning percentage). In addition, he’s also won nearly three-fourths of his career matches at Roland Garros (32-11 record). Having said that, you can expect his opponent this Tuesday in Jozef Kovalik to be in for a long afternoon going up against one of the ATP Tour’s true Grand Slam contenders.
Making his debut at Roland Garros this week is Jozef Kovalik, who pulled off an upset of sorts by defeating fifth-seeded Norbert Gombos in his final match of the French Open qualifiers.
However, we don’t have any other convincing evidence to support Kovalik’s chances of stunning Stan Wawrinka in their first-round matchup this Tuesday. The 24-year-old Slovak has been a busy bee on the courts this season, but he’s seen eight first-round exits in the 16 tournaments he’s played in. Even worse, seven of those 16 tournaments have merely come from the ATP Challenger Tour and ITF levels of play.
In the Australian Open’s qualifiers earlier this January, Kovalik lost his first and only match to 174th-ranked Argentinian, Marco Trungelliti. With that in mind, we may have to wait a little longer before the Bratislava native can be considered as a real dark horse in Grand Slam tournaments, let alone be taken seriously as a formidable opponent versus Wawrinka this Tuesday.
Writer’s Prediction
Wawrinka (-1,500) makes quick work of Kovalik in straight sets.
