PARIS – It was not the French Open first-rounder that most of us were looking for.
Certainly not Marie-José Perec, the former French sprinter and three-time Olympic gold medalist, who had the ultimately dubious honor of pulling the seeded players’ numbers out of the bowl on Thursday for the Roland Garros draw.
Perec came up with one of the craziest, heaviest opening-round matchups in Grand Slam history: fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev versus Rafael Nadal, the iconic 14-time Roland Garros champion who is now unseeded and newly vulnerable in what could possibly be his final French Open.
“I’m mad at my hand,” Perec said. “I think we all had the desire to see Nadal start off a different way: slowly to give him more time to find his bearings. But now he’s going to have to find something really strong right away.”
That seems undeniable. Zverev just won the Italian Open and is looking like the form player at the peak of a claycourt season in which no man has dominated and most of the leading contenders have been dealing with injuries or inconsistency.
Nadal, who will turn 38 next month, has yet to find anything truly resembling his traditional top gear since returning to action after playing just one tournament in 15 months. In three events, all on his beloved clay, he is a respectable 5-3 but was routed in the second round in Rome by Hubert Hurkacz, a thunder-serving, mild-mannered Pole who is dangerous enough to be in the top 10 but no master of the red dirt.
Thus far this has surely not been the comeback season that Nadal envisaged. So, it will be clear advantage to Zverev in Paris but not necessarily easy pickings for Zverev, who will be facing not just the greatest men’s claycourt player in history but a protective crowd that will surely do all it can to help Nadal rise above logic and recent results.
“I think Zverev is the worst possible opponent for Rafa Nadal, but you also have to say that it was not a good draw for the German either,” said former player Alex Corretja in a Spanish radio interview.
The last time Nadal and Zverev faced off was in the semifinals of the 2022 French Open, and they were locked in a baseline grinder that looked like it might not end until dawn. Three hours in, winners were as hard to come by as dry bandannas, and they had not even made it through two sets.
But the end came abruptly when Zverev rolled his right ankle behind the baseline, tearing ligaments and screaming in pain.
He left the court for treatment and reappeared on crutches, retiring from the match with Nadal up 7-6 (6), 6-6. Zverev, who had looked like he might be ready to win his first Grand Slam singles title, instead missed six months of action.
He has sounded eager for a rematch.
“It’s probably the biggest challenge in tennis and the biggest challenge you can have in our sport, to play Nadal on that court,” he said in Rome. “I would love to do it one more time.”
Zverev then went on to say how eager he was to face him in “a semifinal” or “a big match.”
He surely was not thinking first round.
But too soon or not, here we are, and the match will be played on Monday.
"I mean, obviously, to be very honest, I wanted to play Rafa again in my career, in his career, because I didn't want my last memory of me playing against Rafa to be me leaving the court on a wheelchair," Zverev said after the draw. "So ideally, I would have liked to play him in the later stage of the tournament, but it is how it is now. He is unseeded this year. I am seeded. You know, it's a tough draw, but it's a tough draw for both of us. We'll see how it goes on Monday."
It is difficult to imagine Nadal withdrawing after coming to Paris to prepare and after having put in the toil and practice sessions over many months to get himself this far. Neither he nor his coach Carlos Moya took any questions about the upcoming duel when they participated in an event in Paris on Thursday evening for their longtime racket sponsor Babolat.
According to Corretja, now a Eurosport analyst, Nadal and Zverev were supposed to practice together on the Philippe Chatrier Court on Friday but the (bad) luck of the draw scuttled those plans.
This major-magnitude match comes with Zverev facing domestic-abuse charges from Brenda Patea, his former girlfriend and the mother of his daughter. In October, a German criminal court issued a penalty order in relation to the case, fining Zverev 450,000 Euros. He has denied the charges and is contesting the penalty order. As reported by The Athletic, a hearing is scheduled to begin on Friday, May 31st in Berlin. Zverev is not required to appear and will presumably remain in Paris for as long as he remains in the tournament.
The ATP does have a rule pertaining to “major offenses” that would allow it to provisionally suspend a player “charged with a violation of a criminal or civil law of any jurisdiction”.
But the tour has not suspended Zverev, and he has even been elected to the player council by his peers. The ATP also did not sanction him after commissioning an investigation into different allegations of domestic abuse made in news media interviews by Olya Sharypova, another of Zverev’s former girlfriends. Sharypova, unlike Patea, did not bring formal charges against Zverev.
But the Patea case could have serious repercussions, and the charges have already cost Zverev in the marketplace with potential sponsors and in the court of public opinion. Post a Zverev score or achievement on social media, and the comments that follow routinely question why Zverev is receiving any positive coverage at all. He and his sport are in limbo. Though Nadal has been complimentary of Zverev’s game and potential and once gave him a high-spirited and profane Laver Cup pep talk with Roger Federer, this is clearly not the ideal scenario for what could be Nadal’s final match at the French Open.
He has, it should be noted, yet to confirm that 2024 will be his last year here, and he is planning on playing at Roland Garros at least once more for the Olympic tournament that begins in late July on the same red clay. Though Nadal bid farewell to the Madrid event, he did not do the same in Rome this month, leaving the door ajar to a return to the Italian Open.
If he is intent on playing the events that matter most to him one last time, what of the Australian Open, the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and the Monte Carlo Open: all of which he missed this year because of injuries?
Might this farewell tour be extended? It is all Nadal’s call of course. No one is rushing him to the exit. But the ambiguity can make it tough for the public and tournament organizers to strike just the right tone.
What does seem clear is that he and Zverev will be back on the Philippe Chatrier stage very soon and that Zverev has the tools and form to make it a historically short French Open for Nadal, who has only lost three times at Roland Garros and never in the first round.
At 6-foot-6, Zverev has the reach and terrific two-handed backhand to handle Nadal’s topspin. He also has an improved forehand and one of the best serves in tennis.
“He has confidence and the game to beat a Nadal who plays short in the court,” French coach Thierry Tulasne told L’Équipe. “High balls don’t bother Zverev that much, and Nadal is not moving nearly as well. When he is off balance, he is not as good. Nadal wants to dictate the rallies, and that won’t be possible, especially in Zverev’s service games.”
And so it seems, a Nadal victory would be, for the first time, a genuine upset at Roland Garros. Win or lose, it will be a happening — and a very tough ticket to procure — even if many might wish it were not happening at all.
“I want to do the draw again,” Perec said, laughing through the regret.
CC
P.S. Ahead of the French Open draw, I was a guest on the Inside-In podcast. Always a treat to ramble on and talk tennis with someone as knowledgeable and amiable as Mitch.
P.P.S. I am seriously jet-lagged after traveling from San Diego, but it’s great to be back in Paris for what will be my 33d French Open. I will be researching my upcoming book on Nadal and posting regularly here at Tennis & Beyond. I hope you’ll join me (and us) as a paying subscriber and contribute your observations and analysis in the comments section.