5 dark horses who could score big at the French Open 2016

David Goffin

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Belgian ace David Goffin, currently at 13^th on the ATP rankings, saw a quarter-final exit at the recently concluded Italian Open, facing eventual tournament champion Andy Murray.

The 25-year-old played a very close second set against the Scot, who has in recent years found success on clay. Goffin crashed out early at the Mutua Madrid Open, with a Round of 64 loss against France’s Lucas Pouille, although that had been a close contest, with two of the three sets going to tiebreak.

Although Goffin has not managed to progress very far in any clay court tournament this year, every one of his finishes at those tournaments has seen his respective opponents edge him out by narrow margins.

Goffin took his first set against eventual champion Novak Djokovic to a tiebreak at the Miami Masters – a hard court tournament – earlier this year, proving he has the ability to tax even the highest-ranked of players.

Most notably, although Goffin has struggled against lower-ranked players, he has more than held his own against two of the Big Four at the French Open.

At the 2013 French Open, Goffin took on World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the Round of 128 – perhaps an unfair draw for the significantly less-experienced player, and managed to trouble the Serb. Despite an eventual straight sets loss, Goffin would take the opening set to a tiebreak, and the final set to a 5-7 loss, finishing closely against a player who would largely have been expected to rout him completely.

The previous year, Goffin played Roger Federer at the Round of 16 at Roland Garros, and managed to take a set off the Swiss, who won the tournament in 2009.

If he can find the ability to take him over the edge with close finishes, Goffin could well progress through this year’s French Open.