Roland-Garros: Rafael Nadal, twilight of a king

The Spaniard will try Sunday to win his 14th title on the clay of Parisian in what could be one of his last challenges before hanging up.

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Some saw it as a final sign of Providence. He would have obviously preferred to win this 14 e final to the loyal. Friday, June 3, the day of his 36 e anniversary, Rafael Nadal went to seek an 111 e victory at Roland-Garros, taking advantage of the abandonment of Alexander Zverev in Semi-finals (7-6, 6-6). While we were heading for a second decisive game after 3:12 a.m. with a duel as hung as it is, the right ankle of the German turned violently. In tears, the world number 3 left the court Philippe-chatrier in a wheelchair. In a gesture that honored him, he returned a few minutes later in crutches shake the hand of the referee, under the ovation of the central.

Sunday, facing the Norwegian Casper Ruud as a surprise guest, the Spaniard will try to lift his 22 e Trophy in Grand Slam, his 14 e on the Parisian clay, seventeen years after the first. Since 2005, he has only missed the opportunity to blow out his candles three times. Rafael Nadal in the final of the “most important of his career” tournament? A routine. Or almost. Again three weeks ago, the chatelain of the Porte d’Auteuil feared that he could not defend his citadel. On May 12, Spaniard claudicates like an old Cacochyme old in his round of 16 in Rome against the Canadian Denis Shapovalov, lost in three sets (1-6, 7-5, 6-2).

His left foot, bruised by Müller-Weiss syndrome, necrosis of the navicular bone, seems to tell him the way to retirement. The player has been dragging this incurable evil since 2004. That year, he had prevented it from treading the crushed brick in Paris for the first time. As resilient be it, his body has limits that he has already widely exceeded.

survival instinct

At Foro Italico, nadal, empty look, these alarming words: “I play to be happy, but the pain takes off your happiness, not only to play tennis but also to live. There are too many days when I am forced to live with too much pain. Will arrive a day when my head will tell me Basta. “Three weeks later, here it is. As if the Parisian land treated him, regenerate him.

After his demonstration against Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals on Tuesday (6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6), during a May evening which ended in the early hours of June, Rafael Nadal suddenly resumed his favorite costume. The Serbian, who had overturned him here in the semi-finals last year, while his foot pain woke up, received an uppercut from the start. Way of saying: “No one beat Nadal twice in a row on the court Philippe-Chatrier.”

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