He wouldn’t be right here, he mentioned, if he didn’t assume he had an opportunity to win.
It has been a very long time since Nadal confirmed up in Paris and this event was not his to lose. Nadal’s successful the French Open was lengthy the closest factor to a foregone conclusion on this sport or some other.
In October 2020, with the pandemic having prompted the French Tennis Federation to maneuver the event to early fall from late spring, Nadal stampeded via the competitors with out dropping a set. He embarrassed Djokovic, 6-0, 6-2, 7-5, within the ultimate.
9 months later, although, Djokovic bought revenge, breaking Nadal’s spirit and his physique throughout an epic four-set semifinal on his technique to the championship. Mueller-Weiss Syndrome, the degenerative foot situation that Nadal has had since childhood, prevented him from taking part in for many of the remainder of the yr. For months throughout the fall, Nadal puzzled whether or not he would ever play once more.
Then the ache turned manageable. And after just some weeks of preparation and a single event, 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.
“A number of competitors on the lads’s aspect,” mentioned Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, who misplaced the ultimate to Djokovic final yr after successful the primary two units. “It’s one thing that we haven’t seen for positive in a very long time.”
Tsitsipas, 23, spoke of the “barely youthful and really hungry” gamers like himself, who’re determined to start successful 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 “a minimum of 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 pink clay all through Europe, successful a dozen in Barcelona, 10 in Rome and 11 in Monte Carlo, so 13 at Roland Garros is smart, kind of, he instructed. (No, it doesn’t. It’s ridiculous.)
