Injured and out of action for nearly four months, Rafael Nadal risks, for the first time in his exceptional career, approaching Roland-Garros (May 28-June 11), his beloved playground, without having played a single match. on clay. What if he even ended up being forced to give up on the stage for his record fourteen Parisian coronations? Impossible not to ask the question.
Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid and now Rome: week after week, the list of 'Rafa' forced surrenders on ocher grows longer. The latest on Friday concerns the Italian tournament, the last of three Masters 1000 on clay, which begins next week, three weeks before Roland-Garros. "I'm sorry to announce that I won't be able to be in Rome," the Mallorcan, 37, wrote on social media in early June.
"I haven't been able to train at a high level for long months, the recovery process takes time and I have no choice but to accept it and continue working", resignedly- he, evoking all the same "an improvement observed in recent days", without further details.
Hello everyone! I am very sorry to announce that I will not be able to be in Rome. You all know how much it hurts me to miss another one of the tournaments that have marked my professional and personal career for all the love and support of the Italian tifosi. pic.twitter.com/attH8MQWU4
Concretely, Nadal has been deprived of competition by a muscle injury to the left hip (iliopsoas muscle) for almost four months. His last match, a loss in the second round of the Australian Open against the American Mackenzie McDonald, during which he was injured, dates back precisely to January 18. His absence was then estimated at six to eight weeks, but the injury proved to be more tenacious than expected.
So tenacious that he is not able until then to mingle with the spring tour on ocher, yet his favorite time of the year. Technically, he could still line up in Lyon or Geneva the week before the Parisian Grand Slam, but it is highly unlikely. Which puts him at the foot of an Everest: the Spaniard has never appeared at Roland-Garros without the slightest match on clay in his legs.
A year ago, the fault first of a cracked rib in March, then when he woke up from the chronic pain in his left foot from which he had suffered since the age of 18 (Müller-Weiss syndrome) in Rome, he did not only played five. And his triumph Porte d'Auteuil, anesthetized foot to contain the pain, had been a miracle. Even in 2020, the year of the exceptionally autumnal edition of Roland-Garros, in a context of post-Covid-19 recovery, he had played three matches on ocher before arriving in Paris.
Otherwise, since 2005, "Rafa" has always accumulated at least fifteen, and up to more than thirty, matches on clay before Roland-Garros. Because it's Nadal and because it's Roland-Garros, nothing seems impossible anymore. And the Majorcan, at the twilight of his career, necessarily dreams of a fifteenth coronation there which would allow him to bring to 23 the record of Grand Slam titles, which he currently shares with Novak Djokovic. But the challenge promises to be colossal.
Also because this muscle injury comes on top of others, two abdominal tears in particular, which have largely kept Nadal away from the circuit since last summer. Since August and his resumption after his withdrawal before his semi-final at Wimbledon, he has only played thirteen matches and lost eight. Very far from its standards.
An additional obstacle: his fall in the ATP rankings, where the former world No. 1 has so far slipped to 14th, after almost 18 years in the top 10. Garros) without having played since the Australian Open, a player who has won a tournament fourteen times will always be difficult to beat in this tournament”, believes the new winning face of Iberian tennis, Carlos Alcaraz. "But obviously it's going to be complicated for him, because tennis requires playing matches, spending hours on the court, rhythm," he continues. But Rafa is Rafa…”
