At around five in the afternoon this Monday, Rafael Nadal burst into the Roland Garros headquarters, raised his neck to see the closed deck and received the warmth of the crowd of fans – approximately 4,000, almost a third of the capacity – who awaited his return to the Philippe Chatrier, the quintessential stage of his career. It had been two years since the Spanish tennis player had stepped foot on the sand of the French court, his clue; exactly, since he defeated the Nordic Casper Ruud in the 2022 final, preamble to his 14th title in the Parisian great.
Absent last year due to the iliopsoas injury that kept him out of the competition for eight months, Nadal is now rushing through the days with the desire to arrive in time for the 26th, Sunday, the start date of the tournament. So every essay counts, whether it is of greater or lesser intensity. To begin with, the Mallorcan, who will turn 38 on June 3, exercised for an hour and a half with the trainers who will accompany him these days – Carlos Moyà, Marc López and Gustavo Marcaccio – in a first contact that will precede more sessions. intense against other professional tennis players.
A little over a week ago, Nadal did not have a good taste in his mouth when he left the Foro Italico in Rome, where the good feelings obtained in the tests did not continue on the court. “There are two weeks left (for Roland Garros), so we are going to do everything possible to change the situation,” he said then, after being surpassed by the Polish Hubert Hurkacz (nine in the world) in the second season. It was the eleventh match played since his reappearance in January, and the eighth corresponding to this clay court tour that is now entering the final stretch.
Throughout this readaptation phase, Nadal has recorded five wins and three losses; Specifically, he reached the quarterfinals of Brisbane, the second round of the Godó, the round of 16 of the Madrid Masters and the record already mentioned in Rome. He had to give up at the beginning of the Australian Open and then an abdominal problem forced him to delay his return to activity until mid-April because it prevented him from serving normally, as confirmed by his uncle Toni. Now, he continues to do his best to be able to savor Roland Garros, which would be the first major that has been disputed since passing through Australia 2023.
Nadal and the rest of his team appeared this Monday at the Bois de Boulogne facilities, and the athlete was reunited with the organization’s workers, whom he greeted attentively, as reflected in the videos published by the tournament. After 715 days of absence in Paris, the Spaniard will now have three more days to gauge the game and decide whether or not to participate. Installed in 276th place on the ATP world list – which forces him to resort to ranking protected to access the final draw—, trusts that the evolution will be positive and can be part of the draw that will take place this Thursday (2:00 p.m.).
It should be remembered that his classification would expose him to highly demanding duels from the first round; That is, he could run into early rivals of the stature of Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner or Alexander Zverev, the latter recent champion in Rome. Meanwhile, the preliminary phase of the tournament has already begun and these days the rest of the circuit’s figures will be disembarking. Alcaraz will arrive pending his right forearm and Nole, shady lately, will take advantage of the week to shoot in Geneva.
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