Nadal, for Federer and his 20 Grand Slam titles

“For me it's not an obsession at all. I can't be thinking all the time about what Roger (Federer) or Novak (Djokovic) or anyone else has … Of course I would love to finish my career at 25, but it probably won't happen. I'll keep fighting to produce opportunities, and when I retire, we'll see what happened. ” Rafa Nadal said it after losing last Saturday in Rome against Schwartzman when asked about the great occasion that was presented to him at Roland Garros in equal Federer's record of 20 Grand Slam titles.

With that hope, even if he denies it, the Balearic begins this Monday (around 6:00 p.m., Eurosport) his participation in the French tournament against the 27-year-old Belarusian and 83rd in the world Egor Gerasimov, whom he has never faced. He does it in a very hostile Paris for him, in the worst conditions he has ever encountered, as he said at the press conference he gave last Friday. Cold, wind and rain accompany tennis players in the City of Light these days. Although Nadal will play down the new retractable cover of the Philippe Chatrier, in the last turn (around 18:00, Eurosport). The autumn temperature, almost winter, is around 14 degrees, with a sensation of 12, and sneaks into the center, as the first seed of the women's team, Simona Halep, warned yesterday, after winning by 6-4 and 6- 0 to Sara Sorribes. “It's a bit cold, he said.” Among Nadal's troubles are also the new Wilson balls, which he sees as “super heavy, like stones” and to which he will have to get used to.

Despite the fact that the number two in the world seems to put on the bandage before the injury, his rivals fear him and point to him as the top favorite to win the title, and therefore to hunt down Federer. The Swiss has always been ahead of the Spanish in the race for hegemony in the majors, since one won the first at Wimbledon 2003.

Rafa's goal is beautiful and exciting for many reasons. If you lift your 12 + 1 trophy (or lucky thirteen, lucky thirteen, as the Anglo-Saxons say) At Roland Garros, he will be the fifth tennis player, female or male, to add 20 greats in history after Margaret Court (24), Serena Williams (23), Steffi Graf (22) and Federer (20). With a final victory he would also climb to second place in the table for the longest time between his first and last Slam., with more than 15 years, something that only Serena surpasses, with 17 years and 5 months between his wound in the US Open in 1999 and that of the Australian Open in 2017. Another prize that he would get is to be the fourth player in history to win majors in three decades (2000, 2010 and 2020), such as Navratilova, Serena and Djokovic. The Serbian, by the way, is still on the lookout for Nadal and Federer and will be looking for his 18th title from Tuesday.