(Madrid) One month before Roland-Garros, Rafael Nadal continues his umpteenth comeback attempt at the Masters 1000 in Madrid from Wednesday, with the scent of a farewell tour, when the form of his young compatriot Carlos Alcaraz, double champion of the trophy, remains uncertain.
Not yet titled or even a finalist in 2024, world No.1 Novak Djokovic has chosen like last season to skip the Spanish tournament and concentrate on that of Rome, the last Masters 1000 on ocher before the lifting Parisian Grand Slam (May 26–June 9). So much so that the No.1 seed goes to Jannik Sinner, the strong man of the first part of the season.
From January, when Nadal finally returned to competition after almost a year of absence and a double psoas and hip operation, the Spaniard with 22 major coronations already made no secret of what he had in mind: to become competitive again when The season would arrive on clay, its beloved surface.
The new setback he experienced from his third match in Brisbane, Australia, at the very start of the season, further blurred his horizon by putting him on the sidelines for three more months, from the Australian Open to Monte -Carlo included, until his return to Barcelona a week ago. A bumpy return to school, with a victory against the Italian Flavio Cobolli and a defeat against the Australian Alex de Minaur, but an unchanged objective: to see Paris and the land of its 14 crowns again – probably one last time – despite his broken body .
“If my body can handle…”
“I’m going to have to play in Madrid depending on how I’m going to feel,” warned “Rafa” after the Catalan tournament and his elimination 7-5, 6-1 by De Minaur.
“Today, the main thing is not to win, but above all to finish in good health,” he added. “Now is not the time to play the hero, but to be realistic and careful. Once the first round was lost, it was over. I played with the means at hand. »
“If I manage to accumulate a week of training in Madrid with players of a certain level, if I can play rounds day after day, if my body gets used to this level of competition and I feel ready, I will be able to take one more step forward,” he explained.
“If my body is capable of supporting progressive loads, it will help me, week after week, to be able to try to demand more,” continued the Majorcan, almost 38 years old (on June 3, in the middle of Roland-Garros). That’s what I hope. A progression, in terms of my ability to fight. A little more in Madrid, a little more in Rome… And in Paris, come what may. If you have to take a risk, it’s there. Whatever happens, this will be the time. »
In the Madrid Caja Magica, as a symbol of his exceptional longevity, Nadal will enter the fray against the young American guest Darwin Blanch: a 16-year-old opponent, born in September 2007… when “Rafa” was already a three-time winner of Roland-Garros.
Alcaraz ‘probably on court’
Right forearm still protected, but more involved in training than in Monte-Carlo at the beginning of the month when he withdrew, as in Barcelona the following week, Alcaraz, exempted from the first round as seeded N.2, will he be on the starting line at the end of the week?
PHOTO THOMAS COEX, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Carlos Alcaraz in training on Tuesday.
“I don’t want to say anything 100%, but if my feelings are confirmed, probably I will enter the court,” said the 20-year-old Spaniard on Tuesday afternoon, surrounded by a swarm of journalists and cameras .
“There are a few days left before my first match, today I trained with a little more intensity, things went pretty well. I don’t want to rush,” added “Carlitos”, who argued that “playing three or four matches” – which would at best put him in the quarter-finals – would satisfy him in the current circumstances.
Alcaraz will face either the French Arthur Rinderknech or the Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko to start, and why not the Italian Lorenzo Musetti in the next round.
In the women’s draw, a potential Stuttgart revenge could occur between world No.1 Iga Swiatek and Kazakh Elena Rybakina, who has just deprived her of the crown in Germany. Before that, Rybakina is on the road to Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the defending champion, in the last four.
reference: www.lapresse.ca