Stefanos Tsitsipas kicked off his clay season by winning the Monte Carlo Masters and former world No. 5 Daniela Hantuchova has put the Greek among top favorites for the French Open title.
Tsitsipas, 23, won his maiden Masters title after winning Monte Carlo last year.
Two months later, Tsitsipas reached his maiden Grand Slam final at the French Open, before falling short in five sets to Novak Djokovic.
Tsitsipas kicked off his 2022 clay season by winning back-to-back Monte Carlo titles and now his goal is to win his maiden Grand Slam title at Roland Garros.
“I think Stefanos is leading that list [of French Open favorites],” Hantuchova said on Amazon Prime. “Heās got momentum going into the rest of the clay tournaments. Heās the favorite for me going into Madrid and Rome. He was very close against Novak in Rome and Paris last year. Carlos is also right there. We all believe heās that good. Heāll be hungry to build momentum himself.”
Tsitsipas named a favorite by Greg Rusedski as well
Rusedski, a former British No. 1, agreed with Hantuchova that Tsitsipas is among top favorites for the French Open crowd.
“What a performance to win back-to-back titles,” Rusedski said. “We saw the list of six champions to do that. All of the other names were No. 1s and Roland Garros champions. This puts Tsitsipas in a great position to have another run at the French Open. It puts him in the list with four guys you’d think have a real shot to win it, with Rafa [Nadal], Novak [Djokovic] and [Carlos] Alcaraz.”
Tsitsipas missed out on a great chance to win the French Open last year as he was up by two sets in the final.
Djokovic has made a rocky start to the clay season, while Rafael Nadal has yet to play on clay as he is recovering from a rib stress fracture.