The French Open arena is primed for an epic showdown between tennis giants! The encounter between Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev is expected to light up Roland Garros, much to the delight of tennis prominent individuals and fans alike. Former American WTA professional Pam Shriver recently shared her excitement about the upcoming match, riding the same craze to watch the Spaniard.

The 61-year-old tennis legend recently took to her Twitter handle to share how she is not leaving any loose ends just to miss out on one of the highly anticipated clashes of the event. Along with that, she wrote, “Not many times does a tennis match, that I am not playing, coaching, or broadcasting, get my attention as much as this one on day two ⁦@rolandgarros.”

In addition, she also shed her strategy on how she had to set an alarm with the proper label “Rafa vs Zverev” coming up, ready to miss her sleep for the match. Subsequently, it won’t be wrong to say that, as an American who is quite into the tennis arena, she definitely has an eye for competitive battles on the court.

On the other hand, even Novak Djokovic came forward to talk about the first-round clash everyone is waiting for. The 24-time Grand Slam champion said, “Yes, I’ve seen it. Total spectacle. I’m excited to see that match; it will be a very interesting match. Zverev is in great shape, having won in Rome. On the court at Roland Garros, he is not the same Rafa that we are used to. It’s Roland Garros, so we’ll see what happens.” 

Moreover, the Serbian tennis player remained optimistic that the King of Clay may make a surprise run at the French Open, despite the current situation. Furthermore, the German tennis player himself is quite ready to embrace the challenge, and turn the tables, in the right way against the 22-time Grand Slam champion.

“I wanted to play Rafa again” – Alexander Zverev’s outlook on playing Rafael Nadal 

At first, when the 27-year-old tennis player received the news of playing the first round against the former world number one, he took it up as a joke. But when he realized this, he opened up about his thoughts on playing against the 14-time French Open champion on the clay-court itself.

He said, “To be very honest, I wanted to play Rafa again in my career, because I didn’t want my last memory of me playing against Rafa to be me leaving the court on a wheelchair.” Apart from that, he made it clear that he had not expected to play Nadal early in the tournament and that he would much rather have faced him later on, in the semifinals or possibly the final. But since he is seeded and the Spaniard’s not, the roles are reversed this year, so the draw should be exciting and difficult.