Should French tennis officials tweak system and give Rafael Nadal a higher seed for Roland Garros?

Did you know Rafael Nadal has never been seeded lower than sixth at Roland Garros? However, that will change at this year’s French Open, although Patrick McEnroe feels he should be given a “special” seeding position.

Nadal is currently 14th in the ATP Rankings – his worst position since April 2005 – and he could slip further down the list as he is not defending his points at the Italian Open this week due to injury, but he is unlikely to drop out of the top 20 ahead of Paris.

It remains to be seen if he will defend his French Open crown as he is still struggling with the hip injury that has kept him out of the game since mid-January.

If the 14-time champion does enter the clay-court Grand Slam, he will not only head to Paris with no game time under his belt on the red dirt, but he will also have a poor seeding by his usually lofty standards.

The French Tennis Federation (FFT) have always stuck to their guns when it comes to the seeding for the tournament as they use the official ATP and WTA Rankings system to determine the order – heck even when Serena Williams played in her first Roland Garros after giving birth they didn’t give her a seeding boost.

Former US Davis Cup captain and tennis broadcaster McEnroe acknowledges that the FFT are unlikely to change the seeding structure, but he doesn’t like the fact that it will result in a possible early meeting between Nadal and Novak Djokovic – or another top player.

“It will be interesting for the French Federation, which is the one who makes the draws, to see in which seeding position they place him,” he said on his Holding Court podcast.

“When Rafa faced Djokovic in the quarter-finals, I didn’t like it, but they’re not going to change it.

He added: “If they continue down the same path, I don’t think they’ll seed Nadal first or second, which I think they should. At least top four. Because now, due to the lack of tournaments he has played, he will be out of the top 10 for Roland Garros.

“For me, that would be the big question that we would all want to have an answer to.”

Rafael Nadal’s historical seeding at Roland Garros

2005 – 4th
2006 – 2nd
2007 – 2nd
2008 – 2nd
2009 – 1st
2010 – 2nd
2011 – 1st
2012 – 2nd
2013 – 3rd
2014 – 1st
2015 – 6th
2016 – 4th
2017 – 4th
2018 – 1st
2019 – 2nd
2020 – 2nd
2021 – 3rd
2022 – 5th

READ MORE: Was the explosive Rafael Nadal headline disrespectful to an all-time great?