Nadal’s Rome victory bodes well for Roland Garros
ROME: Rafa Nadal returned to the top of the world rankings yesterday after winning his eighth Italian Open title at the weekend to confirm once more his status as the king of the clay court.
Sunday’s 6-1 1-6 6-3 victory over German Alexander Zverev on the Rome dirt ensured the 31-year-old would leapfrog Roger Federer and become world number one for a sixth time ahead of the French Open.
If the rankings were based solely on claycourt play, however, the Spaniard would rarely have left the pinnacle in the 13 years since he won the first of his 10 Roland Garros crowns.
With Federer skipping the claycourt season and top seeding long assured, Nadal will head to Paris next week a strong favourite.
“Everything will be different in Paris,” Nadal said after his victory at the Foro Italico. “Of course a win like this helps but in Paris the conditions will be different. Today is the time to enjoy this victory, not for thinking about Roland Garros.”
Meanwhile, it has been a long and frustrating road back to fitness for Japan’s Kei Nishikori, who will arrive at Roland Garros without an ATP title for more than two years and desperate to prove that his career has not already peaked.
For much of the last decade Nishikori has been the player most likely to bring a first men’s grand slam singles title back to Asia but the 28-year-old now risks being overtaken by South Korean young gun Chung Hyeon.
Reaching the 2014 US Open final remains his best result at a major and his highest career ranking of world number four came the following year.
Since winning the Memphis Open for the fourth time in February 2016, Nishikori has lost seven finals in a row, most recently at last month’s Monte Carlo Masters.
The Japanese sustained a wrist injury in August that ended his 2017 season and kept him out of the first grand slam of the season in Australia.
He was also forced to pull out of Indian Wells in March due to illness, further hampering his progress to full fitness.
“I am fit again,” the world number 24 said at the Madrid Open earlier this month. “I think I need couple more weeks to get used to playing on clay, as more damage to my wrist, play more spin.
Perhaps as a result, Nishikori’s claycourt season has been hit so far despite the impressive showing at the Monte Carlo Masters, which saw him lose to Nadal in the final.
Twice a quarter-finalist at Roland Garros – most recently last year when he lost to Andy Murray – Nishikori will be hoping to go at least one stage further this time around as he looks to make a good career great.