Alexander Zverev shoots down seven rivals with brutal French Open call

believes one man is a lock to reach the final, snubbing the seven other players left in their section of the draw. The world No. 3 suffered a five-set defeat to Carlos Alcaraz in last year's championship match and has confidently declared: "I honestly think that Carlos will be in the final."

Zverev is in a stacked top half with Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic on his path if he wants to make it to the last day of the tournament. But he believes the likes of and Lorenzo Musetti won't be able to stop Alcaraz from returning to the final.

Some of the top players have already had wobbles while making it to the second week of Roland Garros.

Zverev dropped a set to Jesper De Jong in the third round while Alcaraz lost one to Damir Dzumhur, and Sinner had to fight back from a double-break deficit in his opening match.

But the German believes that it has no bearing on how they will fare in the rest of the tournament, especially in Alcaraz's case, even though there are seven other players in the Spaniard's bottom half of the draw.

"Novak hasn't lost a set yet. Jannik, I don't think, has lost a set yet. Carlos has. I have lost a set. But doesn't matter," Zverev said.

"I honestly think that Carlos will be in the final, to be very fair. I don't think there is anybody that, in that side of the draw, will challenge him too much, I think.

"I think he's the favourite, of course, before coming into the tournament. I mean, I think everybody kind of realised that."

Defending champion Alcaraz faces 13th seed Shelton in his next match, with a potential quarter-final against Tommy Paul or Alexei Popyrin. He'd meet either Musetti, , Frances Tiafoe or Daniel Altmaier in the semis.

However, Zverev thinks the only ones who can cause him trouble are fellow title favourites Sinner and Djokovic, who are conveniently all in the same half.

He added: "But I think all the people that can challenge him, all the contenders, I would say, outside of him are all in the top half of the draw. I think we will have to really battle it out and I think he will enjoy watching it."

Zverev could still become unstuck in the fourth round as he faces Tallon Griekspoor, the dangerous Dutchman who took him out in the opening round of Indian Wells.

But the world No. 3 has already had his revenge, beating Griekspoor en route to the Munich title last month.

"I play him almost every week. I don't know. He's the guy that I played the most in the last two years. I enjoy playing him. It's always fun, weird matches. You know, most of the time high level. Some of the times, just crazy things happening," he laughed.