Amid Rising Doubts Over His Return, 36-Year-Old Rafael Nadal’s Badly Affected Ranking Takes the Spotlight As French Open Receives Open Advice From American Doubles Legend

Rafael Nadal fans are anxiously anticipating his first triumph of the year. He enjoyed a fantastic winning run last year, especially in Grand Slams, but this season, injuries have hampered his progress. As he is currently placed outside of the top 10, the Spaniard may find it difficult to defend his title, even if he recovers in time, at the upcoming French Open.

However, according to John McEnroe’s brother, Patrick McEnroe, being one of the all-time greats with 22 Grand Slam titles, Nadal should be granted preferential ranking treatment.

Patrick McEnroe wants Rafael Nadal to have preferential ranking treatment 

Shockingly, this year’s French Open will see the 36-year-old tennis legend at his lowest seed, which his fans have not seen in years. Recently, McEnroe’s brother, Patrick, talked about how Rafa should be treated differently even if he is ranked below other stars in his podcast show, “Holding Court with Patrick McEnroe.”

The 56-year-old tennis player believes that the main focus of the Spaniard will be on recovering from his injury. He further emphasized that he wants him to be given preferential ranking treatment so that he can find his way back to the sport.

The American doubles legend said, “He’s dropped down to like 15 in the rankings. That will be another interesting thing. The French Federation who makes the draws and the seedings, they’ve always gone by the rules, the rankings. When Rafa faced Djoker in the quarters, I didn’t like that but they’re not going to change.” 

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According to the former tennis player, seeding will be another problem for this Spaniard, as he is not ranked high enough, like Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz. Additionally, he also detailed how he would like to see the 14-time Roland Garros champion in the main draw giving his 100%. Nadal, though, would not be the first top-seeded tennis player to receive preferential treatment in a Grand Slam tournament.

French Open has previously seen preferential treatment

In the past few years, the tournament has given a lot of preferential treatment to players like Djokovic and Nadal. Not only that, last year there was the preferential treatment given to the 19-year-old Spanish tennis player. It was questioned by Alexander Zverev. The German tennis player criticized the tournament organizers for giving him just a solitary match at Philippe-Chatrier.

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On the other hand, he explained that Alcaraz played three out of his 4 matches on the main court. Notably, Nadal and Djokovic usually get the opportunity to play two to three games each on the main court.