Rafael Nadal’s Race Against Time: Will He Make a Last Stand at Roland-Garros?

He puts the hearts of his fans to the test. While he was to resume competition on the night of Thursday to Friday in the 1st round of the Masters 1000 in Indian Wells against Milos Raonic, Rafael Nadal finally withdrew already for the third time in a row this season after the Open. Australia in January and the ATP 250 in Doha in February. Three renunciations are as many as the number of matches played by the Mallorcan in 2024 during his big return to Brisbane at the very start of the year. The weeks without competition accumulate and Roland-Garros, which undoubtedly constitutes the last major objective of his immense career, arrives in less than three months.

Time is running out and, at this point, he is really playing against the Mallorcan. Will he be able to play a real role on the Porte d’Auteuil side? It is obviously still too early to make a definitive decision. But hope is diminishing, as Nadal’s body is acting up. “I worked and trained hard and you all know that I took a test this weekend (during the “Netflix Slam”, exhibition against Carlos Alcaraz in Las Vegas, Editor’s note), but I am not ready to play at the highest level in an event of this importance. It’s a difficult decision but I can’t lie to myself and lie to thousands of fans,” he explained on social networks.

A troubling parallel with Federer’s 2021 season

For Nadal, a return only makes sense if he considers himself competitive. History of leaving the stage as he has played all his life, as a warrior. It is clear that, for the moment, the machine is seized. Will he manage to reverse the trend one last time? This is what is at stake in the coming weeks in a time trial which recalls the swan song of the man who was his greatest rival: Roger Federer. This is not a question of returning to the official farewell of the Swiss, surrounded by his colleagues from the “Big 4” during the Laver Cup 2022 in London, but rather of discussing his last days on the professional circuit the previous year .

The parallel is quite disturbing. Like Nadal in Brisbane, Federer took his first steps in Doha by playing two matches there (compared to three for the Spaniard). Not sufficiently ready, he only tried his luck again three months later in Geneva (defeat in the first round) before lining up at Roland-Garros. In the mind of the Basel resident, Wimbledon was the last dream, and to preserve it, he withdrew from Porte d’Auteuil before his round of 16, creating controversy. What the general public didn’t know then was that his knee was still grinding.

Federer, a myth in danger?

A month later, he lined up on the pitch of the “All England Club” almost on one leg, still reaching the quarter-finals, but ending his last career single with a severe 6-0 inflicted by Hubert Hurkacz . Would Rafael Nadal sign for the same scenario at Roland Garros? After all, his best enemy had fallen with weapons in hand. Even if the last fight was lost in advance, Federer had embarked on a final epic, without however being fully aware of it.

A whole spring on earth to keep the dream alive

Seeing Nadal in the second week in Paris without being in full possession of his means would be frustrating, but would not be without flavor. The real fear at this stage would be a twilight like Juan Martin Del Potro, returning to the competition in Buenos Aires in 2022 more than two and a half years after his last match, without having the physical means and simply to say goodbye, symbolically leaving his headband on the band of the net.

Nadal perhaps fears this scenario, even if his recovery in Brisbane showed that his difficulties were not comparable to those of the Argentine. If he can return to clay in April, surely near Monte-Carlo, he will have a whole spring on his favorite surface to keep the flame alive, which was not the case for Federer on grass. This is enough to preserve a dose of optimism, even if your body could well decide otherwise.

2024-03-07 12:19:00
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