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Forget: “Nadal is bigger than Jordan, Ali or Pelé”

Until not long ago, Guy Forget He was the director of a Roland Garros historically dominated by a guy born in Manacor. Rafael Nadal made history again last Sunday, although the former French player (one of the most successful in the history of Gallic sport) is no longer present in the organizational tasks of the Parisian Major. Forget, who also said goodbye to his role as director of the Paris-Bercy tournament, saw Rafa succeed as an analyst for Amazon Prime France, recounting for thousands of viewers the title number 14 of the Balearic Islands in the Philippe Chatrier. This year, Guy seems to have surrendered at the feet of Nadal: what he experienced last Sunday makes him place him on the first step in the history of the sport.

What’s more: as he makes clear in an interview with Le Parisien, Rafa’s huge number of trophies in said tournament make him the champion of the greatest feat of the history of the sport. Thus, without palliatives. “Nadal has achieved the greatest feat in the history of sport. Period. For me, he is above Ali, Pelé or Jordan”. The statements leave no room for doubt, although the one born in Casablanca, as if it were an exam, justifies and explains his sentence. “Try to find someone capable of winning the toughest tournament on the face of the Earth 14 times, to do the most difficult thing that exists. Try to find him in a discipline as popular as tennis, not in a sport that has 25 licenses in the whole world. There is no one. When Borg won Roland Garros six times, we said it was something monstrous, that no one could beat him. Sampras then won 14 Majors. Now Nadal has won Roland Garros 14 times. it’s unimaginable.

Forget puts the focus on the historical value of what Nadal is doing, especially in comparison with other times when these records seemed completely impossible. “It is not something that surprises me, it surprises everyone. If they had told us several years ago that someone would win the same Grand Slam 14 times, no one would have believed it. It was absolutely impossible to imagine, and best of all, it’s not over yet.”. In this sense, Guy ruled out the possibility that Nadal will retire in a short period of time, making it very clear that he believes that he will return to Roland Garros. “In any case, I hope so”. In addition, he also provided perspective regarding the treatment of Rafa’s foot: “If his doctors accepted this treatment, it is because they think that they did not risk his health too much. I hope that, with the passage of time, the pain will decrease. I think that the people around him know what they are doing”.

THE FINAL, A PREDICTABLE SCRIPT

The last act of a wonderful play took place last Sunday, when Nadal painstakingly dissected the game of Casper Ruud, a newcomer to Grand Slam finals. And for Forget, of course, the final had a very predictable scripta film that we had already seen quite a few times: “It’s always the same: we always hope to have more competitive finals. When Ruud led in the second set 3-1, we tried to convince ourselves that he can turn it around and that he can even the match. But he loses his serve. There, Nadal hit the throttle, take second and it’s over.”

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