San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
• Is Rafael Nadal still the man to beat in the French Open?
Until he popped up in Rome last week to play the Italian Open, the only glimpses the tennis world got of Rafael Nadal for seven months came from social media.
He hosted a merry, candid chat with Roger Federer on Instagram in April. Throughout the summer, he shared progress reports on his workouts and return to training. Earlier this month during the U.S. Open, which Nadal opted not to play because of travel concerns relating to the novel coronavirus, came pictures of a masked Nadal giving updates on his tennis academy in Spain.
Nadal went without competitive matches for more than half the year only to emerge in Paris ahead of this week’s French Open, which begins today and runs through Oct. 11, still the heavy favorite to win but with a whole crop of newness to confront along the way.
He addressed most of it at a news conference Friday.
There is a new brand of balls being used at the tournament (heavy, slow, “not a good ball to play on clay, honestly,” Nadal said); new weather conditions for the event, which is usually held in tepid May (“the weather is so, so cold”); and only 1,000 spectators allowed in each day, pared down from the French Tennis Federation’s initial hope of tens of thousands (“not the ideal situation”).
Most unfamiliar of all, that newness and his lack of match play conspired to create the slightest, most gentle whisper of vulnerability about the 12-time French Open champion.
He is still the man to beat as he plays for his 20th Grand Slam singles title, the trophy that would tie Federer’s record.
But — perhaps more than he has been in 15 years — is he beatable?
“Yeah, 100 percent true,” Nadal said. “I always have been beatable on clay ... but at the same time, it’s true that I had a lot of success in this surface. Situation is special. Conditions here probably are the most difficult conditions for me ever in Roland Garros for so many different facts . ... But you know what, I am here to fight and to play with the highest intensity possible, to practice with the right attitude, to give me a chance.”
At Roland Garros, Nadal always has a bit more than just a chance. The 34-yearold owns a 93-2 record at the French Open and hasn’t lost a match there since Novak Djokovic toppled him in the quarterfinals in 2015. He rides a 21-match winning streak into his first-round bout Monday against the 83rdranked Egor Gerasimov from Belarus.
To get to the final, which Nadal has never lost, he would need to go through the recently crowned U.S. Open champion, Dominic Thiem, in a semifinal first. The pair have met in the past two French Open finals.
Nadal, Thiem and topranked Djokovic, returning to the Grand Slam stage after his dramatic exit by default in New York, make up the favorites to win the year’s final major tournament, though only the Spaniard is chasing history on the men’s side. Federer won’t have the chance to extend his slim lead after he shut down his season following knee surgery in spring.
In the women’s tournament, the Serena Williams — who turned 39 Saturday — is playing for another shot to tie the record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles.
The three-time French Open champion will face Kristie Ahn in the first round in a repeat of their openinground match at the U.S. Open and could face another rematch, against U.S. Open finalist Victoria Azarenka, in the fourth round. The No. 2 player in the world and former French Open champion Simona Halep is also in Williams’ half of the draw.
With two-time U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka having withdrawn from the French Open to nurse a hamstring injury, Halep and Williams are strong contenders for the title.