A Nadal at full capacity does not grant an option to Thompson

Legend has it that when he arrived at Roland Garros the recent past dissolves for

, who, even when he appears without the usual certainties, comes to life not so much by magic as by the very narrative of a tournament that plays and wins like no other.

That's how it was, at least, at the start of his eighteenth consecutive appearance, where he beat

6-2, 6-2, 6-2, in two hours and two minutes.

Almost as important for the Spaniard as getting the games going is to do it with as little wear and tear as possible, in the face of the threat of the chronic injury to his left foot that has once again affected his performance for almost a year.

Nadal arrives at the tournament in a different context than usual.

For the first time since 2015, in what was his worst season, he is not one of the top four seeds.

He then lost in three sets to

in the quarterfinals.

The draw hinted at a new confrontation with the Serbian in the same round of this edition.

Despite appearing with five games and only three wins on clay, few doubt that we are facing one of the main candidates for the title.

For the 13-time champion and winner at the beginning of the year of his twenty-first major at the Australian Open, the biggest concern is in his physical condition, in that foot affected by Müller-Weiss disease that set off the alarms in his match of Rome round of 16 vs.

.

A hammer

Ten days after that meeting, Nadal began testing the

, which was a hammer throughout the afternoon.

He hit again and again to take the temperature of his best blow, on which a good part of his chances of becoming strong in his fetish tournament revolve.

He could soon see that Thompson was not going to be an enemy, that he lacked even the slightest arguments to discuss even a set.

6-2 down almost without question, subdued by a full Nadal.

Not even the somewhat heavy track after the rain of the hours before the meeting cushioned the hardness of the impacts of the Spaniard, comfortable, oblivious to any setback.

Number 82 in the world, the 28-year-old player from Sydney has characteristics that barely allow him to do any damage on clay.

In the 2020 Paris-Bercy round of 16, an indoor fast court, he led Nadal to a second-set tiebreaker only to lose in two sets.

Difficult to aspire to so much in a very different situation.

Even in the third set, with the match very close, the southpaw held a sharper Thompson on serve and hitting harder from the baseline.

's debut on Sunday was convincing

, Nadal's was no less convincing, for now with his weapons intact to try to recover the title that Djokovic deprived him of last year.

This Wednesday the Frenchman

awaits him , 139th, who beat

, 2015 champion in four sets.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more

• tennis

• Rafael Nadal

• Novak Djokovic

• Carlos Alcaraz