He wouldn’t be right here, he mentioned, if he didn’t suppose he had an opportunity to win.
It has been a very long time since Nadal confirmed up in Paris and this match was not his to lose. Nadal’s profitable the French Open was lengthy the closest factor to a foregone conclusion on this sport or another.
In October 2020, with the pandemic having prompted the French Tennis Federation to maneuver the match to early fall from late spring, Nadal stampeded by the competitors with out dropping a set. He embarrassed Djokovic, 6-0, 6-2, 7-5, within the closing.
9 months later, although, Djokovic obtained revenge, breaking Nadal’s spirit and his physique throughout an epic four-set semifinal on his method to the championship. Mueller-Weiss Syndrome, the degenerative foot situation that Nadal has had since childhood, prevented him from enjoying for many of the remainder of the 12 months. For months in the course of the fall, Nadal questioned whether or not he would ever play once more.
Then the ache grew to become manageable. And after only a few weeks of preparation and a single match, Nadal received the Australian Open in January, displaying the world as soon as extra that counting him out is a horrible thought. However in current days, the ache has been troublesome once more, and the highest gamers can sense that the 2022 French Open has a special really feel than others in current reminiscence.
“Lots of competitors on the boys’s aspect,” mentioned Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, who misplaced the ultimate to Djokovic final 12 months after profitable the primary two units. “It’s one thing that we haven’t seen for certain in a very long time.”
Tsitsipas, 23, spoke of the “barely youthful and really hungry” gamers like himself, who’re determined to start profitable Grand Slams, and of Carlos Alcaraz, the rising and harmful 19-year-old from Spain. “He looks like he performs tennis simply because he enjoys the game,” Tsitsipas mentioned of the younger Spaniard. However he prefaced these feedback with a reference to Nadal, somebody he jokingly described as having received the French Open “no less than 28 occasions.” That’s how giant his presence looms on these grounds.
Nadal tried to downplay his prowess at Roland Garros on Friday.
He has collected dozens of championships on crimson clay all through Europe, profitable a dozen in Barcelona, 10 in Rome and 11 in Monte Carlo, so 13 at Roland Garros is smart, form of, he prompt. (No, it doesn’t. It’s ridiculous.)
