Paris. Within the version of his very possible farewell to Roland Garros, the Spanish Rafa Nadal, 14-time champion on the Paris clay, will begin with a really robust rival within the first spherical: world quantity 4, Alexander Zverev.
Nadal, champion of twenty-two Grand Slam tournaments however who has barely performed since his title at Roland Garros in 2022 resulting from accidents, will initially need to face one of many fittest gamers on the circuit, who has additionally gained the Masters 1000 in Rome.
“My hand may have been kinder to Nadal, proper? (…) Once I heard the ‘wow’ from the room, I stated to myself: ‘oh shit,'” smiled the individual accountable for figuring out this Thursday the prospect within the draw, the Frenchwoman Marie-José Perec, icon of French sports activities within the Nineteen Nineties and three-time Olympic champion in athletics.
Nadal, who’s about to show 38, has been battling his physique in current seasons. This 2024 appeared virtually like a ‘farewell tour’ for him and being in the perfect situation at Roland Garros has been his precedence.
After virtually a 12 months of absence he reappeared in January in Brisbane, the place he was injured once more. He then missed the Australian Open, Doha, Indian Wells and Monte Carlo.
Within the different European clay courtroom tournaments they misplaced within the second spherical in Barcelona, within the spherical of 16 in Madrid and within the second spherical in Rome.
Because the starting of the week, Nadal has been coaching at Roland Garros in search of an ideal set-up for the match, after having been swept off the courtroom in Rome by the Polish Hubert Hurkacz (6-1, 6-3).
On this week’s observe in Paris he has been measuring his power towards the American Sebastian Korda, the Swiss veteran Stan Wawrinka and the Russian world quantity 5 Daniil Medvedev, who doesn’t precisely have clay as his favourite floor.
Two years later
However Zverev is a problem on one other degree and the results of the draw made it clear that Nadal is not going to have any ‘warm-up spherical’ and that he wants to reply as a lot as potential from day one.
For Zverev it is going to even have a sure aroma of revenge: it was towards Nadal, in 2022, in the course of the Roland Garros semi-final, the place he suffered an ankle harm that made him abandon and that brought about him issues later, for months, to regain his kind.
“I think about that seeing the draw, he [Nadal] He isn’t going to be completely satisfied. Sasha [Zverev] “He is in superb form, so it should be very difficult,” stated the match director, former French world primary Amelie Mauresmo. “However it’s Rafa, something is feasible,” she stated.
Alcaraz, on Sinner’s aspect
In a really open version within the males’s draw, the theoretical semifinals would face the Serbian world primary Novak Djokovic with Zverev on one aspect, and the Italian Jannik Sinner (2) and the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz (3) on the opposite.
That’s, Djokovic averted Alcaraz within the draw they usually may solely meet in an eventual ultimate. Final 12 months the Serbian was the Spaniard’s executioner within the semifinals.
Djokovic’s kind is the opposite massive unknown since he has not but performed in a ultimate this 12 months. In his final massive occasion, in Rome, he was defeated by the Chilean Alejandro Tabilo.
Djokovic will begin within the first spherical towards a Frenchman with wild card [invitación]Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
Alcaraz will debut towards an opponent from the qualifying part and Sinner towards the American Christopher Eubanks (43).
The primary spherical can even have a really engaging conflict between two veteran stars who’ve fallen within the rankings, the British Andy Murray (38 years previous) and the Swiss Stan Wawrinka (39 years previous).
Swiatek, the rival batters
Within the ladies’s crew, the world primary favourite, the Polish Iga Swiatek, will aspire to a fourth title at Roland Garros and the third in a row.
The current champion in Madrid and Rome would have a hypothetical semifinal towards the American Coco Gauff (3), whereas on the aspect of the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (2) the Kazakh Elena Rybakina (4) was left for a potential semifinal.
“Swiatek dominated the season on clay and has simply achieved the Madrid-Rome double. It is rather spectacular,” admitted Mauresmo.
Rafael Nadal returns to Paris for what could be his ultimate marketing campaign, as anticipated, at Roland Garros after virtually 20 years of just about whole dominance. Present champion Novak Djokovic defends his title. By way of Graphic Information
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– 2024-05-26 10:11:55
