Nadal faces his biggest challenge yet at Roland Garros

To talk about Roland Garros is to talk about the phenomenal Spanish tennis player Nadal. His record is practically unmatched, his numbers at the great French tournament are out of this world, and it doesn’t seem that anyone is going to take his record away.

His 12 victories at Roland Garros position him, on sites such as suertia, as one of the main candidates to take home this trophy that should bear his name.

This year everything is different: with the covid19 pandemic, the landscape has changed. Both the preparation of the athletes and the dates of this tournament are truly different, and this may produce other results.

September is the month in which the Roland Garros tournament is being held, something unthinkable were it not for the situation the world is going through. The truth is that the conditions are not the best for any tennis player, Nadal has already said that these are not the best conditions for him, but that his enthusiasm remains intact.

Really, a Roland Garros in September is something new for everyone. With the pandemic, everything is new, and we will have to get used to this kind of decision and situation in sport.

It is not the best sport in which to contest this clay-court tournament. The cold and the weather have been one of the great drawbacks for the tennis players. Nadal makes no excuses in this regard, but he knows that the cold does not help on clay.

He has also commented that the new tennis balls from the tour are not helping players feel more comfortable in their game.

Even so, Nadal has started the tournament as always, without problems in the first round. The player from Manacor, together with Djokovic, has never failed in these matches, always advancing a round. Time passes, but the results are always good for these players.

For many, these balls are called anti-Nadal balls, since they seem not to favor his game, especially in terms of depth, a part of Nadal’s game that gives him a certain superiority over his rivals.

Despite everything, Nadal makes no excuses, as he never has, and he knows that it is he who has to adapt to this entire new scenario in order to take home this new Roland Garros.

Really, there are very few players who can stand up to the Mallorcan in this tournament. If we had to choose one tennis player, Djokovic could be the one who takes away the great challenge of winning another Roland Garros for history.

The Serb is in exceptional form, leaving aside his controversies and lack of tact during the pandemic, and he will not have many problems advancing through the rounds and reaching the final.

There is no doubt that if Rafa Nadal were to win this Roland Garros, we would be talking about a historic milestone given the exceptional nature of the setting. In the coming days we will see what he is capable of, the greatest tennis player of all time.