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Teen sensation Nadal comes of age
Rafael Nadal starts the French Open as one of several wide-eyed teenagers making their Roland Garros debuts. Unlike the rest, however, the Spaniard could well end up winning it.
Rafael Nadal starts the French Open as one of several wide-eyed teenagers making their Roland Garros debuts. Unlike the rest, however, the Spaniard could well end up winning it.
The Mallorcan turns 19 during the course of the claycourt grand slam. He has already come of age on the ATP Tour with some extraordinary tennis in 2005.
He arrives in Paris having won his last three tournaments — the Monte Carlo Masters, the Barcelona Open and the Rome Masters.
Nadal has won five titles in total this season and is on a 17-match winning streak. Having finished last year ranked 51, he is now firmly established in the top 10.
Only number one Roger Federer, who like Nadal will be seeking a first French Open crown, can better that record with 41 wins in his 43 matches and six titles this year.
Clay, though, is a great leveller. Federer has enjoyed least success on the slowest of the tennis surfaces and Nadal’s natural aptitude to it means there will be little to choose between them.
Unsurprisingly the Spaniard rejects the idea that he is the out-and-out favourite, despite having dominated the claycourt season so far.
“The favourite for Roland Garros will be the player who plays the best tennis there,” he said. “All I want to do is go there and win a few matches.”
Nadal’s success has taken its toll of his left hand, inducing a blister on his forefinger that turned into a cut which prevented him playing in last week’s Hamburg Masters.
He sustained the wound in the quarter-finals of the Rome event and his reaction provided proof, were it needed, of his astonishing will to win.
After the teenager declared himself exhausted before the final against Guillermo Coria, he won an epic, five-set duel lasting five hours 14 minutes, the longest ATP Tour final since records began.
His absence from the Hamburg event was almost certainly a blessing in disguise, given that the French Open is the most gruelling of all the grand slam fortnights, with five-set matches commonly lasting more than four hours.
