What if he even ended up being forced to give up on the stage of his fourteen record Parisian coronations? It's impossible not to ask the question.

Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid and now Rome: week after week, the list of forced capitulations of "Rafa" on ochre grows. The latest, Friday, concerns the Italian tournament, the last of three Masters 1000 on clay, which begins next week, three weeks before Roland-Garros.

"I am sorry to announce that I will not be able to be in Rome," wrote on social networks the Mallorcan, 37 years old in early June.

Rafael Nadal on July 6, 2022 at Wimbledon © Glyn KIRK / AFP/Archives

"I have not been able to train at a high level for many months, the recovery process takes time and I have no choice but to accept it and continue to work," he resigned, referring to "an improvement seen in recent days", without further details.

Never without a warm-up match

Concretely, Nadal is deprived of competition by a muscle injury in the left hip (ilio-psoas muscle) for almost four months. His last match, a second-round Australian Open loss to American Mackenzie McDonald, in which he was injured, was on January 18.

His absence was then assessed at six to eight weeks, but the injury turned out to be more stubborn than expected.

Spain's Rafael Nadal after his Roland Garros semifinal against Germany's Alexander Zverev, on June 3, 2022 in Paris © Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP/Archives

So tenacious that he is not able to mingle with the spring tour on ochre, yet his favorite time of the year.

Technically, he could still line up in Lyon or Geneva the week before the Paris Grand Slam, but that's highly unlikely.

This puts him at the foot of an Everest: the Spaniard has never appeared at Roland-Garros without a single match on clay in his legs.

A year ago, the fault first of a cracked rib in March, then the awakening of the chronic disease in the left foot that he suffers since the age of 18 (Müller-Weiss syndrome) in Rome, he had played only five. And his triumph at the Porte d'Auteuil, foot anesthetized to contain the pain, had been a miracle.

Even in 2020, the year of the exceptionally autumnal edition of Roland-Garros, in a context of post-Covid-19 recovery, he had played three matches on ochre before arriving in Paris.

"Rafa" is "Rafa"

Otherwise, since 2005, "Rafa" has always accumulated at least fifteen matches, and up to more than thirty, matches on clay before Roland-Garros.

Rafael Nadal against American Mackenzie McDonald at the Australian Open on January 18, 2023 in Melbourne © MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP/Archives

Because it's Nadal and because it's Roland-Garros, nothing seems impossible anymore. And the Mallorcan, in the twilight of his career, necessarily dreams of a fifteenth title that would allow him to bring to 23 the record of Grand Slam titles, which he currently shares with Novak Djokovic.

But the challenge promises to be enormous.

Also because this muscle injury comes on top of others, two abdominal tears in particular, which have largely distanced Nadal from the circuit since last summer.

Since August and his recovery after his forfeit before his semi-final at Wimbledon, he has played only thirteen matches and lost eight. Very far from its standards.

Additional obstacle: his fall in the ATP rankings, where the former world N.1 has, for the moment, slipped to 14th place, after almost 18 years spent in the top 10.

"Even if he arrives (at Roland Garros) without having played since the Australian Open, a player who has won fourteen times a tournament will always be difficult to beat in this tournament," said the new winning face of Iberian tennis, Carlos Alcaraz.

"But obviously, it's going to be complicated for him, because tennis requires you to play matches, to spend hours on the court, rhythm. But +Rafa+ is +Rafa+..."

© 2023 AFP