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Laver picks Nole for French Open

Published:Tuesday | June 4, 2019 | 12:29 AM
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic celebrates winning his fourth-round match of the French Open tennis tournament against Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff at the Roland Garros Stadium in Paris yesterday.
Christophe Ena
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic celebrates winning his fourth-round match of the French Open tennis tournament against Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff at the Roland Garros Stadium in Paris yesterday.

Tennis great Rod Laver is picking Novak Djokovic to win his fourth straight Grand Slam tournament, just ahead of 11-time Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal.

Laver says, “I’m probably favouring Novak at the moment and then Rafa.”

If Djokovic does win, he would become only the second man in history to hold all four major titles at the same time on two separate occasions – after Laver. Djokovic already accomplished the feat in 2015-16.

Laver remains the only man to have won all four Grand Slams in the same calendar year, in 1962 and 1969.

Laver says, “The clay court is probably one of the toughest ones for a player to win if they’re in line for winning a Grand Slam. You just have to be very fortunate and play your best tennis at the right time – no injuries, no sickness, no colds over a nine-month circuit.”