Nine-time champ Nadal hit with tough draw
Slumping clay court star has Djokovic looming in potential quarter-final
PARIS— It’s the tennis equivalent of climbing three mountains: reaching the Roland Garros final.
And never have the obstacles loomed so large between Rafael Nadal and another trophy on the red clay of Paris as now.
The draw Friday could hardly have been more unkind for the nine-time champion whose confidence and reign as the “King of Clay” are looking shaky.
There were “oohs” and “aahs” in the auditorium as defending women’s champion Maria Sharapova plucked out Nadal’s name to set up another blockbuster encounter with top-ranked Novak Djokovic.
Only this time, the finalists of 2012 and 2014 are on course to meet in the quarter-finals.
Just to get that far, Nadal could have to beat one of tennis’s rising stars, 10th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov, in the fourth round. And possibly lurking in the semifinals could be Andy Murray, the 2013 Wimbledon and 2012 U.S. Open champion, who hasn’t lost a match since marrying long-time girlfriend Kim Sears last month.
Nadal has faced tough draws before. In 2011, 2013 and again last year, he beat three top-10 players on his way to victory. And his 66-1 record at Roland Garros, with his only loss coming in the fourth round in 2009, means he cannot be written off, despite recent chinks in his usually iron-clad clay-court game and selfbelief.
Still, if the June 7 final again finishes with Nadal biting the Musketeers Cup, this Roland Garros could be his crowning achievement, given the traps awaiting him.
Nadal has fallen to No. 7 in the ATP rankings since coming back from injuries, and this has dropped his seeding to sixth, the lowest it has ever been at the clay-court major.
“Everybody had their eyes on this potential clash between Nadal and Djokovic,” tournament director Gilbert Ysern said. “It will be tough for the loser, because they seem to be the best players on clay at the moment.”
This season, Nadal has had his worst run-up ever to tennis’s second major, losing five times on clay. But Ysern said there was never any thought of bumping up Nadal’s seeding to better protect him in the draw.
“Three or four years ago, we thought about giving him a higher seeding when he dropped in the rankings because of a long layoff due to an injury. But this year it’s different, because his ranking dropped mainly due to his results on court,” Ysern said. “We did not even think about it and he did not ask for it; it’s not his style to ask for anything.”
In the women’s draw, 19-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams faces a potential third-round match against former No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, seeded 27th.
Williams will face a qualifier in the first round. Her sister Venus got tough first-round opponent in Sloane Stephens, a semifinalist at the 2013 Australian Open who has reached the fourth round for the last three years at Roland Garros.
The Williams sisters could meet each other in the fourth round if they get that far. Fifth seed Caroline Woz- niacki and sixth-seeded Canadian Eugenie Bouchard, who broke through last season with semifinals at the Australian Open and the French and a final at Wimbledon, also are in the Williams sisters’ half. So, too, is fourth seed Petra Kvitova, a two-time winner of Wimbledon still without a final in any of the other three majors.
On Sharapova’s side of the draw, eighth seed Carla Suarez Navarro looms as a tough potential opponent for the second-seeded Russian in the quarter-finals. If both get that far, Sharapova and the losing finalist she beat last year, third-seeded Simona Halep, could meet in the semis.
Sharapova begins the defence of her title against 49th-ranked Kaia Kanepi.
Nadal, as the defending men’s champion, was called upon to draw out the names of the seeded women, with the fingers on his left hand already covered with sticking plasters.
With Djokovic, Nadal, the thirdseeded Murray and 2013 runner-up David Ferrer all in the same half of the draw, the road for Roger Federer on the other side opened up.
“There is a chance to go very deep” into the tournament, the 17-time Grand Slam champion noted.
“How deep remains to be seen, depending on the level of play.”