‘Rafael Nadal is always one of the favourites if he reaches the second week at Roland Garros’
Toni Nadal insists despite Rafael Nadal’s recent injury woes “anything can happen” at Roland Garros if the 14-time champion receives a favarouable draw.
The injury clouds are refusing to clear for Nadal and there are major doubts over his participation at this year’s French Open as the reigning champion has not played competitive tennis since January.
The 22-time Grand Slam winner picked up a hip injury during his second-round defeat at the Australian Open and he was initially only expected to be out of action for up to eight weeks.
However, the injury has turned out to be a lot more serious than first thought as he is still on the sidelines and he has been forced to miss the first three clay-court events of the season in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Madrid.
The Italian Open, which gets underway on May 8, is the last major warm-up event before the French Open and even if Nadal does enter the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Rome and win a few matches, he will still be short on match practice when the clay-court major starts on May 28.
His uncle and former coach Toni admits it would be a bit foolish to expect too much from Nadal when he does make his return, but he also feels the tennis great will also be in with a chance of winning the title at Roland Garros.
“Rafael is recovering, I think he is not long before he can compete again, but in this tournament [Madrid Open] he could not be here,” Toni said during an interview with RTVE.
“This is one of the tournaments that he is the most excited to play but we will have to wait for another year.”
Of course Nadal had a similar build-up to Roland Garros last year as he played five matches on clay before the tournament, yet he still went on to win the title in Paris.
Toni Nadal added: “If he reaches the second week he is always one of the favourites. Obviously he will not arrive at Roland Garros with good preparation, we do not have to fool ourselves.
“He has not competed for a long time. But Rafael picks up speed right away and in a Grand Slam it depends a lot on the draw. If you’re lucky enough to have a favourable draw in the first rounds then anything can happen.”
