The French Open is more than a month away. But is it already over?
When Rafael Nadal missed more than two months following the Australian Open due to a hip injury, the rest of the ATP Tour figured it may have some kind of a chance at the upcoming French Open. After all, the Coupe des Mousquetaires would be more up for grabs than usual if Nadal arrived at Roland Garros less than 100 percent.
So much for that idea.
Unless the world No. 1 gets injured again–and that has happened on clay, but rarely–he will surge into the French Open with a clean bill of health. Returning from his hard-court layoff, Nadal dominated a pair of clay-court Davis Cup rubbers last week as Spain battled past Germany 3-2 in Valencia. He erased Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 on Day 1 before leveling the tie at two points apiece with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 rout of Alexander Zverev two days later.
“It’s a great feeling,” Nadal commented. “Coming back from injuries is always difficult, but it’s great to be in front of my crowd on a very memorable day…. I am playing with no limitations.”
That is bad news for everyone else–and it certainly was bad news for Germany.
“I want to congratulate all of team Spain,” Zverev said, “especially Nadal and one of the biggest fighters tennis has ever seen in Ferrer; and (I) want to wish them good luck…. “I faced the best clay-court player ever.”
There is no denying that. Nadal is a 10-time champion at Roland Garros, where he captured four straight titles from 2005 through 2008, five in a row from 2010 through 2014, and another last spring on the heels of a two-year drought. The 31-year-old, who is an overwhelming -140 favorite for the French Open crown at TopBet.eu, has also won Monte-Carlo 10 times, Madrid five times, Rome seven times, and Barcelona 10 times.
Nadal’s status as the cream of the 2018 French Open crop became even more clearcut when Roger Federer announced last month that he will once again skip the entire clay-court swing. Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, and others have been injured, so Nadal’s competition level on the dirt of Paris may be significantly lacking. Djokovic is a +600 second favorite ahead of Dominic Thiem (+700), Wawrinka (+1000), and Murray (+1400). A red-hot Juan Martin Del Potro is an intriguing play at +2000.
The clay-court swing gets underway in earnest at next week’s Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters.
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it’s over
Rafa will win every clay court tournament he plays this year. He’s not going to get tired like Rome last year, since he’s not played IW or Miami