Before the French Open: Coach Francisco Roig sees potential for improvement in Rafael Nadal
Despite the tournament victory in Rome, Francisco Roig sees room forimprovement in his protégé Rafael Nadal before the French Open, which starts on Sunday.
by Nikolaus Fink
last edit:
May 25, 2021, 03:57 pm

Once again, Rafael Nadal is the absolute top favorite in the French Open. Well, this is really nothing new for the Spaniard, he has been dominating the clay court season for 16 days now, apparently at will. This year, the 20-time Grand Slam champion has suffered two defeats on his beloved ashes, one against Andrey Rublev in Monte Carlo, the other against Alexander Zverev in Madrid.
And yet, not least because of his triumph at the last big showdown in Rome in Paris, Nadal will again be the man to beat. In the Italian capital, the Iberian prevailed despite an extremely tricky draw, in the final he was too strong for world number one Novak Djokovic.
More dynamism required
Everything in the best order in the Nadal team, you might think. Coach Francisco Roig told the ATP that this is not 100 percent the case. "When we look at Roland Garros, I think that a little more flexibility would be important," said the 53-year-old, who takes care of the world number three together with Carlos Moya.
#VIDEO#
"In terms of aerobic capacity it was very good. It held up well in the games, but we have room for improvement in agility. It could be a bit more dynamic, both forward and sideways," added Roig further out.
Djokovic, Tsitsipas, Thiem and Zverev as the biggest challengers
In addition, it is important to continue working on the serve before the start of the second Grand Slam event of the year. "It was pretty good in the final against Djokovic," said the Spaniard, who was not worried.
As the biggest challenger on the Bois de Boulogne, Roig sees next to the Serb Stefanos Tsitsipas, Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev. However, the best-of-five format would benefit Djokovic and his protégé. This is another reason why Nadal is unlikely to be very hard to beat in the French capital this year as well.