Rafael Nadal on track to reclaim French Open crown
Dethroned as French Open champion in 2009, Rafael Nadal returns to Roland Garros this year with plenty to prove as he seeks his fifth title at the tournament.
So far, the signs are good that the world No. 2 has both the fitness and the game to reclaim the crown from defending champion Roger Federer, but a lot can happen in two weeks of Grand Slam tennis.
Nadal’s fourth-round loss to Robin Soderling at Roland Garros last year marked the unravelling of a season that had before that time had marked the Spaniard out as the player to beat in men’s tennis. He was the world No. 1 and with five titles, including the Australian Open, by the end of May was starting to put some real distance between himself and his great rival.
After bowing out of the French Open prematurely, Nadal’s ongoing knee issues left him with no choice but to watch on from a distance as Federer reclaimed the Wimbledon title the left-hander had won the year before.
It was a different Nadal that returned to the court in time for the US Open (where he carried an abdominal injury all the way to the semi-finals). The 23-year-old looked leaner than he had before the enforced lay-off, and his lack of muscle was having a noticeable impact on what had always been a very physically intensive style of play.
By the season-ending World Tour Finals, where he was winless in his three round-robin matches, Nadal looked to be a spent force. As Nadal was forced to retire from his Australian Open semi-final against Andy Murray with a knee injury (which turned out to be a tear, not that old enemy knee tendonitis) still more questions were asked about his ability to last the distance.
The possibility the left-hander’s body wouldn’t allow him to again scale the heights of Grand Slam glory was becoming more and more real.
Perhaps there’s reason to be cautious about the chances of Nadal’s body holding up over two gruelling weeks of Grand Slam tennis, but there are also plenty of reasons to be optimistic about his chances as well.
Finally, Nadal has learned to listen to what his body is telling him. After storming to the title at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters in April – his first ATP Tour title in almost a year – the Spaniard withdrew from the Barcelona Open (where he was defending champion) to recuperate from the previous week’s efforts.
It can’t have been an easy decision to pull out of a tournament on home soil. Nor can it have been easy for Nadal to resist the lure of another tournament on his favourite surface – after all the European clay-court season is squeezed into the space of just a couple of months – but he was right to do so, and the fact that his body held up all the way to the title at the Rome Masters 1000 and the Madrid Masters 1000 in the following weeks was a testament to that fact.
Those three clay-court Masters titles – the first time any player has completed that particular hat-trick – have provided a timely reminder of just why Nadal is the greatest clay court player currently in the game and in turn have ensured he will enter the French Open as favourite, ahead of his great rival Federer.
It’s certainly tough to find fault with Nadal’s form this spring, and should his body survive the rigours of two week’s play at Roland Garros, a fifth French Open title could be just around the corner for the King of Clay.
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