Rafael Nadal 'more vulnerable' at 2020 French Open, 'the door is open' - John McEnroe
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Published 25/09/2020 at 15:52 GMT
Rafael Nadal is 'more vulnerable' at the 2020 French Open and 'the door is open' for other players to cause an upset, according to Eurosport expert John McEnroe.
Rafael Nadal of Spain during his practice match with Filip Krajinovic of Serbia on Court Philippe-Chatrier in preparation for the 2020 French Open
Image credit: Getty Images
Eurosport expert John McEnroe believes the king of the French Open, Rafael Nadal, could finally be 'vulnerable' this year at Roland Garros.
Nadal crashed out early in very surprising fashion at the Rome Masters, the main warm-up event before the rescheduled autumn Grand Slam in Paris, and comes into the tournament having decided against defending his US Open title.
With world number one Novak Djokovic and US Open champion Dominic Thiem both strongly fancied to challenge, McEnroe believes it may be a golden opportunity for the pair, and other players, to finally dethrone Nadal on the red dirt.
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"I think Rafa is a player who likes to get some matches in under his belt and gets confidence from that, so just because there’s been so little tennis, and then him choosing not to come to New York, obviously he has only played a couple of matches so that makes it more unpredictable," McEnroe told Eurosport.
I just think because of the situation, the world-wide pandemic, that makes him more vulnerable. Also, the law of averages I suppose - Rafa’s won it 12 times so you would think at some point he’ll cool off a little bit and not be able to produce as amazingly as he has, so I think the door is open, particularly since this crazy pandemic has been going on.
"It’s something the players haven’t experienced so it’s going to be unpredictable. A lot of players are scrambling, trying to play events that they might not normally play, say in Hamburg, to get some matches. Others are rolling the dice a little more and playing maybe one event in Rome and others may not be playing almost any events so it’s obviously as unpredictable as it can be with a guy who’s won it 12 times.
"Presumably he would be less confident, but he’s proven over and over in best-of-five sets at the French Open, that’s the toughest task of any player to beat him there, so he’s still got that going for him.
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"It seems that as long as he plays, he’s the favourite but you would think that having to do what he’s done takes it toll in some way," he continued.
The guy has won it 12 times! So I would suspect that this run is coming to an end. He’s bordering on being like Superman so at some point, obviously, we’ve all been waiting. But we’ve been waiting for a while.
"It comes to that desire, he seems to have that insatiable desire and fight in him. So as long as he’s got that, he’s going to be very tough to beat.
"I presume once he doesn’t think he’s going to win it, he won’t even keep playing it - there’s no point in playing it at that point. But no one is going to catch up to him anyway, so he’s in a pretty good position."
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