Hey, folks. Tomorrow is the big day when the French Open draw is made at 11:30 am local time, but before the draw tomorrow I want to get to what’s going on this week in Nice and Geneva, the last two tournaments in the run-up to the French Open.

After a slow start to the year and clay court season, Thiem has picked up his results in Miami, Munich, Rome, and now Nice. There is still a lot of work left to do in his game but by making the semis in Nice he made his first tour semi-final outside of his country Austria. His match with Kyrgios in the second round was an interesting match up, but unfortunately Kyrgios withdrew at 3-4 in the first set. Today he defeated his friend Gulbis for the third time and now leads the head-to-head 3-0.

Gulbis is finding it hard to win any matches at all this year and is 3-12 for the year. It’s hard to believe he beat Roger at the French Open last year. But that is the kind of loss you’d think Roger would be able to avoid this year. Anyway, to get back to Thiem he defeated Gulbis 6-2, 6-4 and I didn’t think he played particularly well. Gulbis is just that bad. Tomorrow Thiem plays against Isner which should be interesting. If he wants to win he’d have to tighten up his game a lot.

He is still playing too loosely on important points. He obviously has great potential because he has everything and he hits the ball hard, but mentally he is not quite there yet. Tomorrow against Isner will be another big test for him. But either way it’s nice to see that he won some more matches on clay after that strong run in Miami. Clay should suit his game and it will be interesting to see if he causes any upsets in Paris. Coric made semis in Nice too so the youngsters keep making their move.

So Stan played in Switzerland in Roger’s absence but he ended up losing in the quarter-finals today to Delbonis, 7-6(5), 4-6, 4-6. Was it another showing from Stank? The tournament in Geneva is not at a good time or I’m sure Roger would have played it instead of Istanbul. I’m not sure if Stan would actually tank in Geneva, but maybe his mind wasn’t quite in it with the French Open coming up. It’s hard to tell with Stan though. Maybe just another poor loss?

The French Open draw this year promises to be an interesting one. With Nadal not ranked inside the top four for the first time going into Roland Garros since 2005, all eyes are on where he will fall in the draw. Does it matter in which of the top four’s quarter he falls, or will he already be unstoppable if he reaches the quarter-final stage? Raonic has also withdrawn from the tournament which means Nadal will be seeded sixth and Stan climbs up to the eighth seed.

This means Nadal can’t meet Stan before the quarter-finals which is fortunate for him, since Stan is the kind of player who can hit him off the court like we saw in Australia and Rome last week. But I’m sure there are players who can potentially upset Nadal before the quarters with the form he is in. No one thought Soderling would do it in 2009, but he did. Will Nadal land in Federer’s quarter and we will see their first quarter-final meeting in a slam? That would give Federer the chance to get a telling win in the head-to-head.

Any thoughts on the draw?

The is in your court.