By Matt Hill
Following a dismal showing in the Barcelona ATP 500 event last week in a 7-5, 6-1 defeat to Alex De Minaur, drawing the Australian the next week didn’t bode well for 22-time grand slam champion Rafael Nadal.
However, the old Rafa showed up and provided possibly the moment of the year on the ATP Tour.
Nadal in his home tournament in Madrid totally shocked everyone in the tennis circles with a 7-6, 6-3 triumph on Santana Stadium in from of an exhilarating home crowd at the Mutua Madrid Open.
The acclaimed King of Clay had a very disappointing Barcelona tournament, which is also a home tournament for Nadal. Many people thought whether he would play Madrid and move on to Rome, but he was not giving up the chance to say goodbye to his fans in Spain.
Nadal was also using this tournament to see if he would be able to be competitive at Roland Garros, which he hinted at not playing if he could not contend.
Rafa was able to beat a very underwhelming opponent in Darwin Blanch in the first round of the event by a score of 6-1, 6-0 who has never won a tour match. Of course, there were definitely a lot of the usual conspiracy theories going around that the draw was rigged for Nadal. Anyone who knows tennis knows these are luck of the draw deals.
This brings us to the match on Saturday with De Minaur and it was a totally different match from the one just a week earlier. In this match Nadal’s serve was a lot better and the backhand was on fire for Rafa.
The first set tiebreak showed just how much Nadal wanted this, leading 6-2 and seeing De Minaur tie it and when it looked like Nadal was going to fold, the old Rafa took control and ended up winning the tiebreak 8-6.
The second set was all Rafa as he dictated the points and made life miserable for De Minaur. It really was a throwback win for Nadal and this now totally changes the narrative for Roland Garros.
I would say that Rafa now will play RG and he really does have a chance if he plays like he did Saturday of being a contender. The question now is can he do this consistently? Time will tell but it was a good first start for him on the way back.
The next event is Rome and Nadal has to continue getting his matches in without wearing himself out for Roland Garros. If he makes a deep run in Madrid, we will see what plan his team has for the rest of the clay season.
Still, things look much more promising for Nadal heading into Roland Garros than they did at the beginning of the clay season. Rafa is making one last run at glory and we all have a front-row seat.
SHOULD THE MADRID OPEN RECONSIDER ITS WILD CARD ALLOTMENT
Usually when a tournament hosts a de facto national championship, the wild cards go mostly to players from that country who normally wouldn’t be in the tournament.
However, the Mutua Madrid Open in recent years has taken a different approach and it is not sitting well with the Spanish players.
Accomplished players like Roberto Bautista Agut had to qualify to make the Mutua Madrid Open main draw while a player who had never won a tour match was given a wild card simply because he was an IMG client.
There are pros and cons to this. Some people think the tournaments usually go way to far in securing wild cards for home players, like at Roland Garros. Others feel this is their championship and they should go to those players.
Wild Cards have been very controversial over the last little bit. Venus Williams keeps getting wild cards to tournaments even though she almost has no chance of winning a match, much less winning a tournament. Caroline Wozniacki has also been using an insane numb
er of wild cards on her comeback.
For a tournament like the Mutua Madrid Open, it really is the grand slam of Spain. Yes, there is Barcelona for the men, but that tournament does not have near the stature of the Mutua Madrid Open.
This is a showcase of Spanish tennis, and the IMG wild cards are very controversial and doesn’t really promote the tournament. In the end though, it is IMG’s tournament, and they have every right to distribute those wild cards as they see fit.
I feel bad for the players like Bautista Agut who deserved that wild card, but it is IMG’s call to make, and they have shown they are going to protect their clients.
SUMMER EUROPEAN CLAY SEASON NOT GOING TO BE THE USUAL VACATION FOR TOP PLAYERS THIS YEAR
After Wimbledon and before the two North American summer hardcourt Masters 1000s start before U.S. Open, the tennis season almost takes a hiatus with tournaments only being played on clay in Europe in small resort towns.
However, thanks to this being an Olympic year that just so happens to be played at Roland Garros, the couple of weeks leading into the Paris games is going to see the cream of the crop participating as Olympic tune ups and I think it is great to see.
The Olympics change the narrative, at least on the men’s side, about these tournaments and really makes the after-Wimbledon slate worth watching this year.
Many top players used these few weeks after Wimbledon to get a vacation in or just take time off, but with the tennis world being focused on Paris both for Roland Garros and the Olympics, many of the top players have already committed to playing one of these events.
Jannik Sinner has committed to Bastad, Sweeden for the Sweedish Open and several top players including Alexander Zverev and Holger Rune, have commited to the ATP 500 event in Hamburg, Germany. Look for more players to join the field in one of these tournaments later on.
Novak Djokovic is the wild card in all of this. If he decides to skip Wimbledon and he has given a lot of indications that he will, look for him to play one of these tournaments and my guess would be Hamburg.
I think Casper Ruud is pretty much planning on playing the entire summer clay season along with the Olympics. The one that seems odd is Kitzbühel the week before the Olympics that actually ends right when the Olympics are beginning.
The women’s side is a little trickier. The only tournaments going on between Wimbledon and the Olympics are WTA 250s. As of right now unless you are from that country or the defending champion, you cannot play a 250 tournament.
This is going to throw the Olympic preparation for the women really upside down. I would not be surprised if the WTA makes an exception on this. It would be pretty silly to have no preparation for the Olympics and then play cold turkey.
There is a chance the WTA does not want to change this rule and have people skipping Wimbledon to play in the Olympics, something that looks very likely with Ruud and possibly Djokovic.
The Road to the bonus Roland Garros is going to be fun to watch and should give us some entertaining tennis in the summer that we are normally not used to seeing.
