One month before Roland-Garros, it is impossible to say if Rafael Nadal will be ready for one last lap in his favorite tournament. Annoyed by repeated injuries, the Spaniard is on a tightrope, he knows it. And on the eve of his entry into the running in Madrid, he warned: he will only line up at Porte d’Auteuil if he “feels sufficiently ready”.
For the moment, this is still far from being the case. Forfeited in Monte-Carlo, eliminated in the second round in Barcelona by Alex De Minaur, Rafa is slowing down. Hampered in his service and in his races, in particular, he must seriously gain strength to hope to do well during the Parisian Grand Slam. Because he will not go to make a simple act of presence. “If it were Roland-Garros, I wouldn’t play tomorrow,” he said this Wednesday in Madrid.
The absence at Roland of the man who has won the tournament fourteen times would be heartbreaking for everyone. Also, Nadal wants to prepare the ground, just in case. “If I don’t play Roland-Garros, that doesn’t mean everything is over. There are Olympic Games (also on Parisian clay), there are different formats to play in,” he stressed. And at worst, there will be the Laver Cup in Berlin in September.