MADRID, 4 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis player Rafa Nadal disputes this Sunday (15:00) against the Norwegian Casper Ruud the final of Roland Garros for the fourteenth time in his career, with all the experience and favoritism to enlarge his idyll and legend in Paris.
The man from Manacor, who turned 36 this Saturday, is indestructible at the Philippe Chatrier and, despite all the twists and turns of 2022, is in a new final in search of his 14th Musketeers Cup and 22nd ‘Grand Slam’. “Australia was more surprising, this, after all, is Roland Garros,” Nadal said after the semifinal.
The Spaniard returned this year after six months of inactivity due to surgery on his left foot. His return was with a view to the first ‘great’ of the season and the Balearic raised the title in Melbourne by coming back from 2-0 to the Russian Daniil Medvedev. Nadal chained 20 wins in a row, three titles, until Indian Wells.
In the Masters 1,000 he broke a rib, which prevented him from competing in the final and left him out of action for six weeks. Nadal reappeared in Madrid, but without rhythm and above all with the problems that the height of the capital always gives him. In addition, his foot rebelled and bothered him even more in Rome, where he gave in in his second match.
Pending physicality and the danger embodied by Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz on the same side of the draw, Nadal picked up speed in Paris until the tremendous acceleration against number one. ‘Nole’ suffered Nadal’s epic, dedication and quality in delicate moments and Alexander Zverev did it in the semifinals.
The battle against the German had an abrupt outcome when, just at the point that sent the second set to the ‘tie-break’, the number three in the world sprained his ankle and could not return. Everything pointed to a duel to remember, three hours of exchange with a superlative Nadal and a Zverev who did not throw in the towel.
Victory 111 was bittersweet, although the Spaniard left an incredible reaction in the first set and another as it seemed routine in the second, but the option is served for the Spaniard to mess it up again in Paris. With his last two performances and an unrivaled track record, Nadal will be very favorite against a Ruud who dreamed of this moment when he trained at the Nadal Academy.
The Norwegian, who knocked out Croatian Marin Cilic in the semi-finals, showed that, at 23, he is a specialist on land. In fact, the number eight in the world is the player with the most wins on this surface since 2020. The Norwegian, an eight-time ATP champion — seven in clay tournaments — made the big leap in Paris.
Until this second week, the Nordic’s best result in a ‘Grand Slam’ was the round of 16 of the Australian Open 2021, with which in the French capital, Ruud has widely exceeded his limits until his first final. The game has it, but he will have to be able to take it out when on Sunday he plays for the first time against Nadal and does it where the Balearic raised his reign.