He’s a huge fan, but tennis great John Newcombe suspects it’s too soon for Alex de Minaur to contend for French Open spoils.
With women’s world No.1 Ashleigh Barty opting out of her title defence during the coronavirus pandemic, de Minaur will lead the Australian challenge for the second grand slam in a row.
The claycourt major gets under way on Sunday, with de Minaur high on confidence after his breakout run to the US Open quarter-finals this month.
Seedings wise, the world No.27 won’t play a higher-ranked rival until at least the third round.
But with just one previous match win at Roland Garros and only one outing on the dirt after making the unusually swift transition from American hard courts, de Minaur will be sweating on a favourable draw on Thursday night.
Newcombe has no doubts the 21-year-old can be a claycourt force in the future, but just not before adding some muscle to his slender 69kg frame.
“I’d have to see the draw, how it comes out, but it will be hard work for him,” Newcombe told AAP.
“He’s going to have to do a hell of a lot of work. If he got to the quarters, it would be a terrific effort.
“He’s not going to be physically where he needs to be, just bulking up a bit, until he’s 25, 26.
“But he’s got a good all-court game and he understands the game well, so there’s no reason he can’t be a pretty good late maturer (on clay).”
Fellow Sydneysider Jordan Thompson reached the third round in Paris last year before also enjoying his career-best grand slam charge with a last-16 showing in New York this month.
“Jordan is going terrific but if he got to the fourth round it would be a good effort for him,” Newcombe said.
Former US Open quarter-finalist John Millman, France-based Alexei Popyrin and journeyman James Duckworth join de Minaur and Thompson in the men’s draw.
Emerging talents Aleksandar Vukic, Max Purcell and Marc Polmans have progressed to the second round of qualifying and must win two more matches to earn entry to the main draw for the first time.
Australia has Ajla Tomljanovic, Daria Gavrilova and Maddison Inglis in the women’s draw and Astra Sharma and Arina Rodionova in qualifying.