Rafael Nadal has his first 2024 French Open moment – will it be his last?
Roland Garros welcomed back its greatest champion on Monday – but does that mean the doubts over Rafael Nadal’s participation in this year’s French Open are over?
Nadal returned to the Philippe-Chatrier court that has staged some of his greatest moments, with Nadal’s record 14 wins at Roland Garros as a record that will almost certainly never be beaten.
His last match at the French Open came in the 2022 final, when he beat Casper Ruud to add to his legacy as the ultimate ‘King of Clay’ and for much of the last year, a French Open return seemed unlikely for Nadal due to his ongoing physical issues.
After missing last year’s Roland Garros event due to injury, 37-year-old Nadal has stated that he will only play at this year’s tournament if he feels he can be competitive and challenge for more glory.
In what has confirmed will almost certainly be his final year in tennis, Nadal has based his season around getting ready to compete at Roland Garros.
Yet there have been real doubts about whether he would even show up in Paris over the last few weeks, with Nadal admitting his physical level may not allow him to compete in best-of-five-set matches.
Nadal stated after the Madrid Open last month that he would not play in Paris unless his physical conditioning improved and he backed that up with more pessimistic comments after he lost against world No 9 Hubert Hurkacz at the Rome Masters.
“Now there are two ways,” said Nadal, as he pondered his French Open options.
“Probably one is to say, Okay, I am not ready, I am not playing enough well. Then is the moment to take a decision in terms of not playing Roland Garros.
“Another is to accept how I am today and work the proper way to try to be in a different way in two weeks.
“The decision, as you can imagine, is not clear in my mind today. But if I have to say what’s my feeling and if my mind is closer one way or the other way, I going to say be in Roland Garros and try my best.
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“Physically I have some issues, but not probably yet enough to say not playing in the most important event of my tennis career.
“Let’s see what’s going on, how I feel myself mentally tomorrow, after tomorrow, and in one week. If I feel ready, I going to try to be there and fight for the things that I have been fighting the last 15 years, if now seems impossible.”
Well, Nadal has ended one fragment of this debate as he has arrived in Paris and stages his first practice sessions on Philippe-Chatrier.
In front of a large crowd, Nadal was welcomed onto the court as a returning hero as the PA announcer gave Nadal a big welcome and chants of ‘Rafa, Rafa, Rafa…’ rang out.
Nadal looked a little embarrassed to have such a lavish reception for a practice session under the roof on Chatrier and he appeared to be in decent shape physically as he looked around the arena that will always mean so much to him.
With his statue already in place at Roland Garros, Nadal has nothing left to prove in his career and even though he is in the French capital, there is still a possibility that he will opt against playing in a tournament that gets underway on Sunday.
Nadal may have already accepted that he can’t win the French Open again given the physical difficulties he is dealing with, but does he want one last dance on the stage he has made his own?
We won’t have long to wait to discover what his answer will be and tennis fans around the world will all be hoping we get a chance to see him on Philippe-Chatrier for one last time.
