What Do We Say to the Gods of Clay? Roland Garros Preview 2019

Roland Garros starts with a cracking schedule on Sunday ... settle in for our draw analysis and wide-ranging conversation about the clay season, the democratization of the men's clay events, and some odds and ends. How will Naomi fare as a first-time no. 1 seed? Will Novak complete Novak Slam 2.0? Will we get another first-time women's Slam winner?  

 

3:00 A Redistribution of wealth in the clay season

6:15 Men's draw: Djokovic gets Thiem, Rafa gets Fed/Tsitsipas 12:00 The unpredictable men's 3rd quarter and Rafa's soft draw 20:30 What it means that Roger is back; and resisting "grace" 24:50 Women's draw: first time no. 1 Osaka gets a wild draw 30:20 What to make of Serena, troll extraordinaire 36:30 3rd quarter: Sloane the star, Venus/Elina, Muguruza, Bertens, Bencic 49:40 4th quarter: will dark horses Vondrousova or Mladenovic take out the consistent Pliskova? 53:35 Nick Kyrgios spends a week "managing expectations," then withdraws 55:30 Sir Andrew Murray expects to play doubles at Wimbledon 58:00 We asked y'all what you were looking forward to 1:05:50 Katie Boulter didn't do anything wrong, for the record ... 1:09:00 Bigging up #KinderGirlWorld Day, props to Madison Keys