Why it's the right year for Rafa Nadal at Paris-Bercy

Without doubt the most beautiful monument in the world (and in the background, the Eiffel Tower).

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• Rafael Nadal is back in Paris to compete in the Masters 1000 de Bercy, three weeks after winning the thirteenth Roland-Garros of his career.

• If the Spaniard preempted the Porte d'Auteuil tournament, it is not at all the same music in the 12th arrondissement, where Nadal has 0 career victories.

• But this could be a good year and we'll explain why.

For Rafael Nadal, Paris is above all a story of schizophrenia.

History-maker at Roland-Garros, where the Spaniard won his thirteenth career coronation in October, Nadal has a lot more trouble - to put it mildly - when it comes to hitting the ball in the 12th arrondissement, near the AccorHotels Arena where the Paris-Bercy Masters 1000 begins Monday.

We put it mildly because the Mallorcan has simply never won the Paris indoor tournament.

And again, if there were only that… During the last four editions, the world number 2 has each time had to forfeit at various stages of the competition.

Here a problem with the abdominals, there wrist pain, nothing will have been spared him.

But all that is ancient history and this year is the right one, we guarantee it to you on account.

And since we're super nice, we'll even explain why.

Rafa 🤜🤛 Stan #RolexParisMasters

📲 https://t.co/rOzFwJa1gh pic.twitter.com/YtljbDzWiq

- ROLEX PARIS MASTERS (@RolexPMasters) October 30, 2020

A hole to fill in the CV

The sportsmen of Rafa Nadal's caliber are machines programmed to eat just about anything that comes close or far to competition.

You only have to see how Rafa struggles in a golf competition, he, the amateur in the middle of the professionals, to be convinced.

So inevitably, the hole formed by the Masters 1000 of Paris-Bercy in the player's curriculum vitae is a task in his eyes and he would not spit on a small victory history to erase his years of famine.

And do not be fooled by this laconic "I will try to give the best of myself", released Sunday during a virtual press conference, to doubt the appetite of the guy.

This year, no more physical problems at the end of the season

Above all, what makes us say that it smells good for Nadal is the Covid-19 context that surrounds the season on the circuit.

Unlike in previous years, the ATP Weight Watchers version calendar requires Nadal to not arrive in Paris on his knees.

And that changes everything.

With very few tournaments played this season, the winner of Roland seems to have the canes to appear well in this Bercy behind closed doors.

“It's true that at the end of the year, in the past, I would sometimes arrive tired physically but also mentally.

On the indoor courts, I need to be fresh, available and in top form, he admitted on Sunday.

This may be the surface on which I need to improve my game to be successful.

At Bercy, I often had problems, I had to withdraw on several occasions.

This year I would like to give myself a chance to succeed.

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What about the specter of the scoumoune who has pursued him for years?

“I don't think about it because otherwise I wouldn't be playing,” he replies simply.

When I arrive at a tournament, I try to show my best tennis, not to be petrified by the worries of the past, the injuries I may have contracted.

I am ready to show my best tennis, I will not let myself be teased by any injury or fear of injury.

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Forgotten the world number 1 place

Nadal will also be relieved this year of another significant mental load: that of the quest for the place of world number one, which he had disputed here last year against Novak Djokovic.

Indeed, even if the Serb took the dance of his life in the quarterfinals against Lorenzo Sonego in Vienna last week, Djoko still has 2,000 points ahead of his pursuer.

It would take a gigantic miracle - full box at Bercy and at the London Masters as well as at Sofia, where he has little chance of getting involved ... - for the order of things not to be reversed by then.

Nadal will therefore only play with one goal and one in mind, which should allow him to let go of the horses on the court.

A tournament start within reach

With this Bercy without Djokovic, as we have said, but also without Roger Federer or Dominic Thiem (the Austrian forfeited at the last minute), the lord of the Porte d'Auteuil sees the competition lighten in the big widths.

And to top it off, the Spaniard is enjoying a rather affordable start to the tournament.

In the first round, he will face Filip Krajinovic before perhaps crossing paths with Borna Coric.

The two men are not Sunday pimpinos (Krajinovic won Bercy in 2017 and Coric beat Nadal twice in their four oppositions), but the Spaniard should still be able to overcome that without too many sores.

If we push the game of predictions further, Nadal could then play his compatriot Carreño Busta in the quarter and Zverev in the half.

This is not a walk in the park, of course, but we have already known a tougher picture.

Either way, it's now or never.

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• Sport

• Masters 1000 Paris-Bercy

• Rafael Nadal

• Tennis