French Open 2022: Rafael Nadal - "It's a positive start"
Rafael Nadal had no problems in his opening match against Jordan Thompson . After the victory, the Spaniard was quite satisfied with his performance.
by Nikolaus Fink
last edit: May 24, 2022, 10:00 am
It's an unusual situation for Rafael Nadal : For the first time in what felt like an eternity, the Spaniard didn't travel to the French Open in Paris as the top favorite. The preparation for the clay court king on his favorite surface was too mixed: At the comeback tournament in Madrid Nadal lost in the quarterfinals, in Rome problems with his left foot caught up with his defeat in the round of 16 against Denis Shapovalov.
In his smooth opening victory over Jordan Thompson, Nadal showed no signs of physical problems. With 6: 2, 6: 2 and 6: 2, the 35-year-old got rid of his first task and thus underpinned his ambitions in Paris. "It's a positive start. I'll have a training session tomorrow and a new chance the day after tomorrow," said the fifth in the world rankings at the press conference.
Normally, Nadal shouldn't have any major problems in round two either, with Corentin Moutet a very pleasant opponent awaits the Iberian. The Frenchman should only be a transitional station on the way to the 14th title in Roland Garros for the 21-time Grand Slam winner anyway.
The fact that self-confidence is not as high as before only seems to bother Nadal to a limited extent. Of course it would be more beneficial to stretch the title to the sky in the run-up to a clay court tournament, but he didn't want to deal too much with the past: "I'm here to do my best."
Here the individual tableau in Roland Garros
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