As opening days of Grand Slam tournaments go, that was a pretty crazy one, starting with Naomi Osaka winning a match that became too close for comfort, ending with Andy Murray walking off Court Philippe-Chatrier for probably the final time, and featuring lots of fun matches involving French players. The new Suzanne Lenglen roof was also unveiled and Novak Djokovic gave a cryptic press conference where he talked about having 'low expectations'. Catherine, David and Matt wrap it all up on a two-part podcast, that also includes predictions for Rafael Nadal vs Alexander Zverev on day two.

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In our final preview show ahead of this year's Roland Garros, we were live in our AirBnB in Paris to react to an astonishing Rafael Nadal press conferences as he confirmed that he's feeling better, said there's a chance he could play this tournament again next year, and revealed that he's been practising well in preparation for his first round match against Alexander Zverev. There was a dose of realism in there too - he hasn't played at a high level for a long time - but his mood was much more buoyant than we were expecting.

We also react to Hannah's latest column to talk about how Nadal's dominance at the French Open has made us feel over the years and how to come to terms with what the tournament will be like without him.

Finally, there's reaction to Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu's press conferences, chat about possible outsiders who could go on a run, a discussion about what would count as success for Novak Djokovic in 2024, and a run through the day one order of play.

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Hannah’s latest column about Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros is available for Friends - https://bit.ly/HannahOnRafa

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Catherine, David and Matt divided and conquered on media day at Roland Garros as Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner both spoke positively about their fitness, Daniil Medvedev and Coco Gauff discussed their serves, Andy Murray reflected on his 2017 semi-final against Stan Wawrinka, Alexander Zverev talked about his round one showdown with Rafael Nadal, and Iga Swiatek gave off a real air of confidence. Plus, David doorstepped some Danish journalists to find out about the real Holger Rune, and we watched Novak Djokovic lose to Tomas Machac in Geneva.

OUR LINKS:

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Become a Friend of the Tennis Podcast to also help us to produce the show year-round, receive exclusive access to bonus podcasts throughout 2024, including Tennis Re-Lived and Grand Slam review shows, read Hannah's Column and watch monthly live shows on YouTube.

Hannah’s latest column about Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros is available for Friends - https://bit.ly/HannahOnRafa

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