‘There’s Nothing We Can Do’ – French Open Director Remains Concerned About Fitness of Rafael Nadal Going Into the Tournament

Rafael Nadal is one of the best players ever to play the game of tennis. The 35-year-old is one of the top three current-generation players. Along with the Serbian Novak Djokovic and Swiss legend Roger Federer. However, at the age of 35, his journey is also not so smooth. As the 21-time Grand Slam winner missed most part of last season to his recurring foot injury. Recently, while playing in the Italian Open, this persistent problem arose again. As the current world number 4, crashed out of the tournament.

With the French Open all set to kick off on 22nd May, the tournament director Amelie Mauresmo showed her concern about the looming threat of the best player of the tournament missing out because of an injury.

Amelie Mauresmo Shows Concern for Nadal’s Injury

In the third round, Nadal faced a shocking 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 defeat against World N0. 16 Denis Shapovalov. Nadal won the first set 6-1. However, he lost the second set 5-7. The Spaniard began limping in the third set of the match against Shapovalov. Taking advantage of Nadal’s injury, the 16th seed won the final five games as the Spaniard struggled with an apparent foot injury.

Speaking to the sports broadcasting channel Eurosports, the French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo said that she is hopeful of Nadal playing this year’s Roland Garros. Nadal’s exclusion from the tournament will be a major setback.

As he is a legend of the game and has been most successful in this tournament. People are always excited to witness him play in Paris. “Of course, there’s a concern for him first because we know how important coming to Roland-Garros is to him and it’s probably shaped all of that, all of his legends, in a way.” She said.

However, the former world number 1 expressed her disappointment in the fact that there’s nothing much she can do about it.“So we’re following it… I would say carefully, but there’s nothing we can do. We’re just obviously all crossing our fingers to get the best players in the draw. Then what would it mean if he were to eventually not play in the tournament? Obviously, he would be a miss.” She added.

Rafael Nadal confirms playing the French Open

With the threat looming on his participation in the French Open. The world Number one has hinted at playing in the tournament. The 35-year-old recently posted a picture of himself practicing in his academy and wrote in the caption “see you on Wednesday Paris @rolandgarros.” 

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This pretty much confirms that the Spaniard is traveling to Paris for the French Open, but we can only confirm his participation in the matches after further updates.