KING OF CLAY? PAGES 6-7
Nadal favourite to regain Paris throne
>> PARIS: Rafael Nadal insisted on Friday that he didn’t care if he was regarded as the favourite for a 10th French Open, even if his rivals begged to differ.
“100 percent he’s the big favourite,” said Austrian star Dominic Thiem, one of the support cast waiting in the wings should the great Spaniard slip up.
“Of course I think he’s back at his best this year, and then also he won here nine times. So he knows how it works to win here.
“I think he will try everything to win Le Decima, I think it will be very unique in tennis to win a Grand Slam title ten times. It’s pretty crazy, I guess. So 100 percent he’s the one to beat and the big favourite.”
Thiem, the 23-year-old world No.9, has already faced Nadal three times on clay this spring — losing in the finals in Barcelona and Madrid before gaining revenge in the quarter-finals in Rome.
It’s that kind of surprising setback — Nadal’s only loss on clay this year — that has the 30-year-old Spaniard eager to calm the mood.
However, with defending champion Novak Djokovic and world No.1 Andy Murray both struggling for consistency, it appears to be a thankless task.
“You have to write what you have to do, but I don’t care,” said Nadal.
“At the end of the day for me the only important thing is arrive here, play well. If I am playing well, doesn’t matter if you believe or you don’t believe that I am one of the candidates or not.
“The only way to have chances, real chances to play good event is play very well, be healthy, and then be with the right attitude in every practice and in every match, no?”
Nadal, who was forced to withdraw from last year’s Roland Garros with a wrist injury after two rounds, has already reached the magical 10 titles number this year at the claycourt events in Monte Carlo and Barcelona.
For good measure, he also won Madrid for a fifth time, ending a seven-match losing streak, stretching back over two years against Djokovic in the process.
Nadal boasts a sensational career record at Roland Garros — 72 wins and just two defeats, to Djokovic in 2015 and an injury-affected shock loss to Robin Soderling in 2009.
“I definitely see him as the No.1 favourite for this title,” said Djokivic.
Meanwhile, top-ranked Murray said he considered himself lucky despite seeing his season torpedoed by shingles, flu, an elbow injury and now a pre-French Open fever.
Murray, the 2016 runner-up at Roland Garros to Djokovic, admitted he had been sick since arriving in the French capital last Sunday.
“I felt sick in the afternoon and didn’t feel great on Monday but I feel better. Now it’s just a cough,” said the 30-year-old British star who thinks he caught a bug training in the wet and cold of London earlier this month.
Murray’s poor form this year has, not surprisingly, reflected his physical travails.
He suffered a shock fourth round defeat to Mischa Zverev at the Australian Open.
On clay, he lost in the third round in Monte Carlo, made the semis in Barcelona, was a third-round loser in Madrid before an opening defeat in Rome to Fabio Fognini.
“It’s frustrating — it’s the third time I have been ill this year,” he admitted.
However, he said he was surprised that he hadn’t been laid low by sickness on many more occasions over his career.
“I have been pretty lucky with that over the last couple of years. I have not had too many bad illnesses. So maybe they have just come in a small space of time,” he said.
He starts against Russia’s world No.85 Andrey Kuznetsov.