It’s very interesting how everyone’s been talking about Federer and Nadal being outside favorites at the French Open. Most of the chatter has been legitimate given their results on the clay heading into the French Open. Nevertheless, both have come into the French Open and breezed into the fourth round, and only Nadal has lost a set out of the two.

I’ve been watching Federer this week as he has been executing service breaks to perfection. Vintage Federer has always had a knack for neutralizing the serve and go on offense immediately – and he’s doing that this week. Meanwhile, Nadal is doing what Nadal does, which is just grind out his opponents, going from defense to offence in a dime, while aggressively chasing everything under the sun.

Meanwhile, you got the other favorites, such as Thiem and Tsitsipas, having more trouble in the first week. Although, they haven’t looked threatened. Thiem needed four sets in his first two matches, and had a couple of tie breakers to deal with as well. Not exactly smooth sailing. Tsitsipas was also taken to a fourth set in his second-round match.

Finally, as expected, the number one seed, Djokovic, seems to be cruising as nicely as Nadal and Federer, easily winning his first two matches.

So, what’s next for the old guard? Federer will meet the winner of Mahut and Mayer in the fourth round. Neither of them is a threat to Federer, so look for him to finally have a difficult match in a quarterfinal, where he’ll probably meet either Wawrinka or Dimitrov.

Nadal has a cleaner look towards the semis, with nobody really in his way other than a potential match up with Nishikori. Out of the three old guards, Djokovic has it the toughest, he’s got a potential match-up with Coric in the fourth round, and then may have to deal with Fognini or Zverev in the quarters. That should be interesting!