The French Open Made A Huge Mistake Seeding Rafael Nadal No. 5, And Now Its Draw Is Lopsided

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, winners of a combined 41 Grand Slam singles titles, will meet at Roland Garros.

That’s the good news for tennis.

The bad news?

The two living legends won’t square off in the final — or even the semifinals. They will meet for the 59th time in their careers in a highly anticipated quarterfinal on Tuesday (2:45 ET, Tennis Channel).

History will once again be on the line. If Nadal wins, he will remain alive for his 14th French Open title and record-extending 22th Grand Slam singles title after he won his 21st at the Australian Open in January.

If Djokovic wins, he will remain in the mix for his record-tying 21st major title.

The tennis world is getting this matchup in the quarters — and not the finals, or even the semis — because Roland Garros went strictly by the ATP Rankings, where Nadal is No. 5 and Djokovic is No. 1.

In fact, the top half of the draw features the top three favorites to win the title: Djokovic, Nadal and No. 6 Carlos Alcaraz, who faces No. 3 Alexander Zverev in another quarterfinal Tuesday and is the only man to beat Nadal and Djokovic in the same clay court event.

The other half of the draw?

It features Casper Ruud, Holger Rune, Andrey Rublev and Marin Cilic. One of those four will reach Sunday’s final. Rune stunned No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas in four sets Monday, while Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champ, routed No. 2 Daniil Medevedev in straight sets later Monday.

I mean, what are doing here?

This is the tennis equivalent of a Battle of the Bands with The Beatles, The Stones, Oasis and Greta Van Fleet in one half of the bracket, with Asia, Toto, Pure Prairie League and The Knack in the other half.

Even before the tournament began, Patrick McEnroe called out Roland Garros officials for this absurd situation, where a man who has won the tournament 13 times – 13 ! – is seeded No. 5.

In what world should Nadal ever be seeded lower than 2 at the French? He entered the tournament 105-3 at Roland Garros and is now 109-3 there.

“Come on French Open, it’s time to go with the seeding system,” McEnroe posted in a video. “Enough already. We had Nadal and Djokovic last year in the semis. One of the greatest matches ever, in the semis. Tennis needs it in the final. Now we could have Djokovic-Nadal in the quarterfinals. Come on, let’s get it together, finally.”

McEnroe called on the French Open to be more like Wimbledon was up until 2019, when it used its own seeding formula to separate the players, a system designed to ensure that the best players on grass were more likely to be separated in the early rounds.

As TennisMajors.com pointed out: “Pete Sampras was elevated from a world ranking of No 6 to No 1 in 2001, in recognition of the fact that he had won the title in seven of the previous eight years. Boris Becker, three times the champion in the 1980s, was lifted from a ranking of 18 to a seeded position of No 8 in 1997. Stefan Edberg, the winner in 1988 and 1990, was given a seeding of No 12 in 1996, 10 places higher than his ranking.

“And famously in 2018, Serena Williams, the seven-time Wimbledon champion, was seeded No 25 despite her ranking of 183, although that was mitigated by the fact the American had only just returned to the Tour after the birth of her first child.”

Wimbledon abandoned this approach in 2020. Still, McEnroe called on Roland Garros to do the right thing ahead of this year’s draw.

“When is the French Open going to finally get it together and do their seeds the way they do it at Wimbledon? Which accentuates the success of the player on that particular surface.”

The way things stand, either Nadal or Djokovic will be out of the tournament as of Tuesday, and two-thirds of Nadal, Djokovic and Alcaraz will be done by end of play Friday.

One of Ruud, Rune, Rublev or Cilic will make the final.

Maybe that will make for a great show come Sunday. Maybe one of them will author an inspiring and thrilling run to the final — or maybe even the title.

But imagine what a Sunday final featuring Nadal and Djokovic would mean for tennis? With so much history on the line?

Or a Nadal-Alcaraz final featuring one Spaniard almost 36 years old and another who just turned 19?

Or a Djokovic-Alcaraz final pitting the best player in the world today against the anointed one for the future?

Nadal is 10-7 against Djokovic in majors, and 7-2 in the French. Djokovic leads 30-28 all-time.

Who knows? This could be Nadal’s final Roland Garros ever, and he could go out in the quarterfinals? He has talked often about his chronic left foot problem that has hampered him for years and has gotten worse of late.

“I am in quarterfinals, two weeks ago, I didn’t know if I would be able to be here,” he said. “So just enjoying the fact I’m here. Being honest, every match I play here, I don’t know if it gonna be my last match here in Roland-Garros in my career.”

If that match somehow turns out to be in the quarterfinals — instead of the semis or the final — what a pity that would be.

Even if it isn’t, Roland Garros should have done better.

Come on, folks. Let’s get it together.