Next for Nadal: the grass courts of Wimbledon
Leave it to others to decide whether Rafael Nadal is playing the best tennis of his career as he comes off a 10th French Open championship, his 15th Grand Slam title in all, and now turns his attention to Wimbledon.
Those sorts of comparisons do not interest him. Never have. After a 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 tour de force against Stan Wawrinka in the final at Roland Garros on Sunday, capping two weeks of nearly flawless tennis on red clay — zero sets conceded; only 35 games dropped in seven matches — Nadal was asked whether he would rate himself as highly as ever right now. He shook his head. “I don’t know. I cannot say (yes); I cannot say not. These two weeks have been a great level of tennis, is true. But I already won two Roland Garros, too, without losing a set before this one, no? ... Probably I was playing good, too, no?” Nadal said with a smile. “The only thing that I know is I am playing well now. I am happy. I am enjoying every week, and I want to continue. And I’m going to try to keep working hard to try to enjoy more beautiful weeks.”
Wawrinka had fewer qualms about assessing Nadal, who leads the tour with four titles and 43 match wins this season, including a 24-1 record on clay.
In the new ATP rankings, Nadal moves up two places to No. 2, his highest spot since October 2014.
“He’s playing the best he’s ever played. That’s for sure. But not only here,” said Wawrinka, a three-time major champion, who is ranked No. 3. “I think since the beginning of the year, you can see he’s playing more aggressive, staying more close (to) the (baseline) . ... His level of play is unbelievable.”
There’s no rest for the weary: Play begins at the next major, Wimbledon, just three weeks from Monday.
No. 1 Andy Murray is the defending champion. No. 5 Roger Federer will be back in action after taking the claycourt portion of the season off. Novak Djokovic, who slid from No. 2 to No. 4 in the new rankings, will try to get back on track after going through four Grand Slam tournaments without successfully defending any of the titles he won a year prior.
And Nadal? Both he and his uncle Toni, who is also his coach, keep pointing to one key factor when it comes to how he’ll fare at the All England Club.
“When Rafael is good with his knees,” Toni said, “he can play well on the grass.”
Nadal won Wimbledon twice, in 2008 and 2010. He also reached the final there three other times. But it has been a while: The Spaniard, now 31, has not made it past the fourth round at Wimbledon since 2011. Women’s rankings: Jelena Ostapenko jumped from 47th to a career-high 12th in the WTA rankings after winning the women’s championship Saturday for the first tour-level title of her career. French Open runner-up Simona Halep moved from No. 4 to No. 2.
Angelique Kerber kept the No. 1 spot. Serena Williams dropped two spots to No. 4. She is taking the rest of this year off because she is pregnant.