 What's going on everybody welcome back to another video and we are continuing our series on the road to victory the road to the title The French open title to be specific and we are now talking about the defending champion on the men's side Rafa Nadal, let's go have a look at who he's gonna have to potentially beat in the coming rounds to get his 21st Grand Slam title so his first round opponent is locked in he's playing against Alexi Popperon and these two have played the one time Before it was actually a couple of weeks ago in Madrid with Rafa getting a straight sets wins So you would expect that Rafa would get through his first round match. His second round matchup is likely to be Frenchman Richard Gascay. Now these two have a long long history, but ever since they turned pro it's all been Nadal He leads their head-to-head 16-0 one of the most dominating head-to-head records of any two players You would expect that Rafa would get through his second round match against Gascay His third round is projected to be against number 26 seed Lorenzo Sonigo who's been in some form lately And these two have never actually played before so when that happens on clay You would expect that Rafa gets the win against a younger player like Sonigo his fourth round match There's two potential opponents the most obvious one being Yannick Sinner Who is the 18th seed and these two have only played twice before with Rafa getting wins both times and interestingly enough both of Those matches have been on clay Sinner yet to win a set so Rafa will be liking his chances against Sinner And the second opponent might be the 14th seed Montfies and Rafa has a 14-2 record against Montfies and has never lost a clay court match against the Frenchman So no matter what happens Rafa will love his chances going into that fourth round heading into the quarterfinals There are three potential opponents Rafa could be facing and all three are very dangerous first one being Andrei Rubelev The number seven seed now Rafa does have a leading head-to-head record against Rubelev 2-1 But they played in Monte Carlo a couple of months ago and Rubelev got the win It was a big shock so Rubelev is going to be walking into that matchup with some confidence Another potential opponent would be the 10th seed Schwarzman and Rafa has a 10-1 Record against Schwarzman so he'd be liking his chances But Schwarzman did beat him last year on the clay courts of Rome So Rafa is gonna have to be careful against Schwarzman However, he did beat Schwarzman a couple of weeks after that match at the French Open in the semi-finals So you would expect Rafa would get through Schwarzman and his third potential opponent could be the 24th seed Carrotseed now these two have never played before because Carrotseed is relatively new to the scene So if Carrotseed was to get to the quarterfinals and play Rafa You would expect that Rafa would win that matchup being that it was in Rafa's stadium at the French Open the court that he owns You never know Carrotseed could throw up some problems for Rafa So I think he wouldn't want to play him. If Rafa does make it to the semi-finals There are two big names that he's most likely to face and those are the two fellow goats Djokovic the world number one That's the most likely scenario for Nidal and these two have played a lot of times before with Djokovic leading the head-to-head 29-28 the last two times they have played have been on clay and Rafa has won both of those matches The last one being a couple of weeks ago in Rome So Rafa on the clay is gonna like his chances against Djokovic and the other one being Federer the number eight seed Which I think is less likely to happen But if he does in fact play Federer he actually has a 24-16 record over Roger And we all know that Rafa on the clay court dominates Federer in most situations with their last match being two years ago at the French Open the Dahl winning in straight set So if he does play Federer in the semi-finals you'd expect that Rafa would win going into the final now And there are three big names that Rafa is likely going to face one of them Sidney pass being the most likely the number five seed now Rafa does have a 7-2 record against Sidney pass But Sidney pass did beat him in an epic five setter at the Australian Open and almost beat Rafa in Barcelona He had championship points in that final Rafa getting the win So Sidney pass will be liking his chances against Rafa the second opponent the Rafa could face in the final is Dominic team the number four seed now Rafa does have a nine six record against team The team is one of their last two matches. So he'll be liking his chances against the Dahl The only thing is those were on hard court and the last time they played on a clay court It was Rafa winning in four and the other opponent Rafa could be facing in the final is the number six seed Zverev Now Rafa does have a six three record against Sasha Zverev But Zverev has won three of their last four matches with one of them being on clay in Madrid this year So if he does face Zverev and Zverev has a good day especially has a good serve on the day That could be a tough match for Rafa But again five sets at the French Open Rafa is always going to be the favorite against anybody So there it is the projected road to the final for Rafa into the title for Rafa Let me know down in the comments below how far can Rafa go can Rafa win another French Open I think it's going to be a lot tougher than previous years He's got some tough opponents from the fourth round onwards and some very interesting wildcard opponents too If he plays Carrots of who knows what could happen and of course the Djokovic Nadal matchup could be a semi-final That will be epic. But again, let me know down in the comments below how far can Rafa go this year at the French Open So the defending champion Rafa Nadal the god of clay has a pretty tough road ahead of him if he's going to defend his title