{"id":397674,"date":"2024-05-27T20:22:34","date_gmt":"2024-05-27T20:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=397674"},"modified":"2024-05-27T22:05:49","modified_gmt":"2024-05-27T22:05:49","slug":"emotional-nadal-crashes-out-of-roland-garros","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=397674","title":{"rendered":"Emotional Nadal crashes out of Roland-Garros"},"content":{"rendered":"

The noise was loud and relentless, a chorus of thousands of belting out \u201c Ra-fa! Ra-fa!\u201d whenever their guy found the occasional moment of brilliance of the sort he has conjured up so often at Roland-Garros<\/a> and elsewhere through the years.<\/p>\n

The 15,000 or so on hand roared their support when Rafael Nadal<\/a> stepped out into Court Philippe Chatrier, voices echoing under the closed roof of a place he called \u201cmagical for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the 14-time champion at Roland-Garros approached the net for the pre-match coin toss. When he took his swings during the warm-up. And, especially, when he whipped his trademark topspin lefty forehand or chopped his two-fisted cross-court backhand or placed a volley perfectly to claim a point.<\/p>\n

Watch Roland-Garros 2024 live and exclusively free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Plus four courts in 4K UHD on<\/strong><\/em> Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, the home of grand slam tennis.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The problem for Nadal, and for his fans, is that there were not nearly enough such points for him against Alexander Zverev. Not enough vintage play to allow his nearly 38-year-old, oft-injured body to claim one more victory, no matter how much the folks in the stands tried to will that to happen. And so he lost 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the first round of the French Open to Zverev in what might turn out to be Nadal's last match at the clay-court tournament he dominated for so long.<\/p>\n

\"Rafael<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s the last time that I played here,\u201d Nadal said, \u201cI am at peace with myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is the first time in his long and illustrious career that Nadal has been beaten in two consecutive matches on clay courts \u2014 he lost to Hubert Hurkacz at the Italian Open on May 11 \u2014 and the first time he has dropped a match earlier than the fourth round at Roland-Garros.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last two years, I have been working and going through probably the toughest process in my tennis career with the dream to come back here. At least I did,\u201d Nadal said. \u201cI mean, I lost, but that\u2019s part of the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had indicated 2024 likely would be his last season, but he said over the weekend he is not absolutely certain he be at the French Open again. He reiterated that after only his fourth defeat in 116 career matches at the place.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI am not saying I am retiring today," said the Spaniard, whose son, Rafael Jr, sat on his mother's lap in the stands.<\/p>\n

While Nadal said it's doubtful he'll enter Wimbledon, which he won twice and starts on July 1, he did note he hopes to return to Roland-Garros later that month, when the Olympics' tennis competition will be at the French Open site.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheTennisLetter\/status\/1795133346743275565?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

Tuesday's match ended in anticlimactic fashion, with the 22-time grand slam champion unable to play his customary way after one and a half years of hip and abdominal injuries. He had hip surgery during the 2023 French Open, the first time he missed it since winning his debut there as a teenager.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy body has been a jungle for two years. You don\u2019t know what to expect,\u201d Nadal said. \u201cI wake up one day and I (felt like I had) a snake biting me. Another day, a tiger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nadal, who turns 38 on June 3, has been limited to 16 matches and an 8-8 record since the start of last year. His infrequent play dropped his ranking to No.275, and he was unseeded for the French Open for the first time; he'd never been anything worse than the No.6 seed in 18 previous appearances.<\/p>\n

That is why Nadal ended up facing the No.4-seeded Zverev, the runner-up at the 2020 US Open, a gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics and the only man to reach the semi-finals in Paris each of the past three years.<\/p>\n

\"Rafael<\/p>\n

Nadal's other losses at Roland Garros came against Robin Soderling in 2009, and against Novak Djokovic in 2015 and 2021.<\/p>\n

Djokovic, owner of 24 major championships and the man Nadal played against more than any other, sat in the stands Tuesday, as did younger stars Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz. Also there: Nadal's uncle, Toni, who used to be his coach. Not surprisingly, it was difficult to spot so much as a single empty chair anywhere in the arena on what many realised could be a historic occasion.<\/p>\n

Here and there, when Nadal was able to come up with the goods and get the better of his opponent, he would yell \u201cVamos!\u201d and throw that celebratory uppercut that became so familiar, from the days of muscle shirts and Capri pants to Monday's look of sky-blue sleeves and standard-length white shorts.<\/p>\n

His numerous and vocal supporters would respond in kind, thrusting their fists in the air right along with him or shaking their red-and-yellow Spanish flags or clapping to the beat of a drum.<\/p>\n

If Nadal put a ball into the net, or sailed one wide or long, the groans of disappointment filled the chilly air. Between points, especially when he was trying to navigate a difficult spot, it was so quiet that a pigeon\u2019s coos were audible from a corner of the stadium.<\/p>\n

Nadal began shakily, with a misplayed drop shot and a double-fault contributing to getting broken at love. He got broken again to end the first set.<\/p>\n

\"French<\/p>\n

The 198cm Zverev is a talented player coming off a title on clay at the Italian Open. The 27-year-old German leverages every bit of his long legs and considerable wingspan to cover the court well and unleash tough-to-corral groundstrokes.<\/p>\n

As he plays in Paris, he is awaiting Friday's start of a trial in a Berlin court related to accusations of domestic abuse made by an ex-girlfriend. Zverev does not need to be present at the court and has said he won\u2019t be there.<\/p>\n

Nadal said his body felt as well as it has in a while during practice, and he finally could move without limitations, but he hasn't been competing enough lately.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo hold your level (with) this amount of energy, this amount of concentration,\u201d he explained, \u201cyou need to be playing often.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing the fans directly, Nadal said: \u201cThe feelings that you made me feel here are unbelievable. I really hope to see you again, but I don\u2019t know. Merci beaucoup.\u201d<\/p>\n

And with that, he gathered his bags and headed to the locker room, but not before stopping to look around. He applauded right back at those applauding him and saluting him with one final chant.<\/p>\n

\u201cRa-fa! Ra-fa!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The noise was loud and relentless, a chorus of thousands of belting out \u201c Ra-fa! Ra-fa!\u201d whenever their guy found the occasional moment of brilliance […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":397676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=397674"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":397680,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397674\/revisions\/397680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/397676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=397674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=397674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=397674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}