King of Clay, Rafael Nadal, lastly returned on the pink soil on the ATP Tour as he performed on the 2024 Barcelona Open on Tuesday. He emerged victorious towards Italian teen Flavio Cobolli, defeating him 6-2, 6-3. It was his first match on clay since he gained the 2022 French Open singles title.
He skipped your complete 2023 season because of the harm he picked up in Australia. Scheduled to play in Monte Carlo final week, the Spaniard made a last-minute withdrawal citing health causes. Together with his return to the Tour, the query of his doable run on the 2024 French Open has been raised once more.
In all likeliness, this could possibly be the ultimate season on the Tour for the 22-time singles Grand Slam title winner. With 14 titles at Roland Garros, he’s already probably the most embellished participant at a single Majors occasion. Nevertheless, ranked 644th on this planet proper now, there’s no approach Nadal can enter the Grand Slam’s predominant draw immediately.
He must both use his protected rating or rely upon a wildcard. However the true query stays if the Roland Garros organizers will seed him regardless of his low rank. Whereas there could possibly be a combined opinion on this, World No. 42 Chris Eubanks feels Rafa must be seeded.
I might put him in Prime-16 for positive. You have to house him out towards the Prime-16 guys. If you are going to put him 25, you would possibly as effectively depart him unseeded. He is bought to be contained in the Prime-16. Off the highest of my head, it could possibly be a bit robust to go Prime-8 contemplating the type of different gamers.stated Chris Eubanks talking on Tennis Channel
Eubanks was affordable in placing the Spaniard in Prime-16 as a substitute of the Prime-8. He felt the likes of Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Casper Ruud, and Stefanos Tsitsipas together with the opposite prime gamers can’t be swapped with the King of Clay regardless of his monitor report therefore discovering Prime-16 superb.
Will probably be robust to take a type of guys out of the Prime-8. That is why I'm form of going Prime-8, Prime-16, and 32. So I feel Prime-16 is a reasonably protected wager. You could possibly make him a ninth or tenth seed. However at that time, I really feel if he isn't Prime-8, he would possibly as effectively be Prime-16. It does not actually make a lot distinction being 10, 12 or 13.added Chris Eubanks
What’s the standards for Grand Slams to resolve if they will seed a low-ranked participant?
The seeds for this yr’s French Open shall be introduced in almost three weeks from now. The Grand Slam match will kick off on twentieth Might with the finals scheduled on ninth June. With simply 50 rating factors to his identify, Nadal would wish to win in Barcelona and the dual Masters occasions in Madrid and Rome.
However the likeliness of that is fairly much less given his bodily struggles. The dependency on a wildcard or seeding is at an all-time excessive for the World No. 644. The French Open, just like the opposite three Grand Slams, has the fitting to grant seeding to a participant who doesn’t mechanically qualify for the seeding place.
The choice is taken, nevertheless, based mostly on previous performances. Within the case of Nadal, there’s no different profitable participant than him on the match. Whether or not he certainly will get a seeding, solely time can inform. For now, the Spaniard will concentrate on taking up Alex de Minaur within the second spherical in Barcelona.
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