Nadal’s doubt, a good incentive for an exciting clay season

Monte Carlo, Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Rome and Paris. As a tourist route, a dream. But as a tennis route, nirvana. Especially for the great legion of players who love clay, the common surface of these tournaments and who this week will enter their high season in the Principality, on the way to the great final goal of Roland Garros .

Incentives are increasing. Adding to the expected return of Rafa Nadal is the superb form of Jannik Sinnerhis growing rivalry with Carlos Alcaraz – he just dropped from the second step of the world rankings -, the surprising moment of Igor Dimitrov and the unknowns raised by the number one Novak Djokovic in his recent appearances.

Djokovic, Sinner, Alcaraz: The battle for No. 1

As he enjoys his 419th week at the top of men’s tennis, and is about to become, next Sunday, the oldest number one in history (36 years and 321 days), However, Novak Djokovic’s leadership seems weak.

The Serbian topped the list with 9,725 points, followed, both by a fist, by Sinner with 8,710 and Alcaraz with 8,645. The five major clay tournaments ahead offer plenty of combinations for those positions to vary, but the most likely thing is that the new number one, if there is one, will be decided at Roland Garros. All three have options to leave Paris in that position.

Djokovic, current champion at Roland Garros, will defend 2,315 points in the clay season and the Italian, 585. The sinner fell in the second round in Paris in 2023, so it will be difficult for him not to improve on that result.

The list of upcoming clay tournaments includes three Masters 1,000s before Roland Garros (Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome) and each of them will be important for qualification.

Alcaraz won both in Barcelona (500 points) and Madrid (1,000) in 2023, losing in the round of 32 in Rome (45) and in the semifinals at Roland Garros (720). A defense for the Spaniard of 2,265 points, which puts him at a disadvantage compared to Sinner.

Djokovic has won more than 80% of matches on clay throughout his career. He comes out of Monte Carlo with a cautious background so far this season: he was eliminated in January in the semifinals of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the season, by Sinner, and in Indian Wells he lost in the third round against to another Italian, Luca Nardi, 20 years old and 123 in the ATP rankings. He later canceled his participation in the Miami Masters 1000.

The number one announced last week her divorce from Croatian Goran Ivanisevichis coach since 2018, and so far he has not announced a replacement.

The year of the Sinner

If Djokovic debuts in the Principality with a record of eight wins and three losses this season, The underdog would do it with a whopping 22 wins and just one lost game, in the Indian Wells semifinals against Carlos Alcaraz. And in the titles of Australia, Rotterdam and Miami.

With his new number two, he is the highest ranked Italian in the history of the ATP rankings. And it could be the twenty-ninth number one since the list was created.

But the Sinner, a 22-year-old boy who always shows maturity and humility, wants to escape any success. facing the demanding season on the orange surface: “I didn’t have much time to prepare for Monte Carlo, so this is obviously the next goal, to try to gain confidence on clay.”

His coach Darren Cahill assured after the victory in Miami that the Italian still has plenty of room for improvement. The sinner himself endorsed that opinion and again showed caution: “We know what we have to improve. Now comes the dirt season and I usually have a problem with that. Let’s see what I can do this year.”

Alcaraz, in search of its regularity

With two Grand Slams in his pocket, the US Open in 2022 and Wimbledon in 2023, Alcaraz’s clear goal is to add the Roland Garros title to his collection and become the eighth Spaniard to win ita list headed by Rafael Nadal with his 14 victories and also including his coach Juan Carlos Ferrero (2003).

To fully reach Paris, in the previous dirt tour the Murcian player had to regain effectiveness which he has missed in several stages of the current season. Brilliant at Indian Wells, which he won in straight sets against Alexander Zverev, Jannik Sinner and Daniil Medvedev, in the Miami quarterfinals he did not find the password to deactivate Grigor Dimitrov.

Previously, before retiring from the Rio de Janeiro tournament due to a sprained anklein Buenos Aires he fell in the semifinals against Chilean Nicolás Jarry in two sets and before that in the Australian quarterfinals against Zverev in four sets.

For the youngest number one in the history of men’s tennis, the demand is at a maximum with every appearance he makes. For the first time in 82 weeks he was out of the top two spots on the ATP and had to row to regain positions in the face of Djokovic’s huge advantage and Sinner’s intense push.

After his loss against Dimitrov, he confessed that he felt like a thirteen-year-old child because of his inability to find solutions to stop the Bulgarian. Monte Carlo will mark the path of its clay season, where it will have an added advantage over its biggest rivals: playing two tournaments at home, Barcelona and Madrid.

And Nadal?

In seven official matches in the last 14 months, Rafa Nadal appears on the list of those registered for the Monegasque tournament, which he won eleven times. Your land.

As soon as he announced his absence from the Indian Wells tournament in March, which followed Doha in February, he published a video on his networks with the message ‘earth’, calling his followers to the tour that was about to begin.

The tournaments, the fans and, certainly more than anyone, Nadal himself are hoping to see him reappear in Monte Carlo, has recovered from his long list of injuries and is ready to showcase the game that made him the best in history on that surface. But for now his presence in the tournaments is still awaiting confirmation and announcements are expected every week, as is customary with the player, about his participation in the next commitments.

Nadal is currently ranked 649th in the ATP rankings. The last tournament he played was in Brisbane (Australia) in January, where he injured his hip.

Dimitrov, reborn

Grigor Dimitrov’s tenacity, courage and elegant tennis combined in Miami to give the Bulgarian a week of glory for his 32-year-old self, which he is about to end. Only the Sinner was able to stop it, by defeating him, and without a problem, in the final

Back in the top-10 of the world list and with a title (Brisbane) and two finals (Marseille and Miami) in 2024, one of the stimuli of the next tournaments will be to see if he can maintain the level once he gets his socks. soiled with clay.

The dirt will also test a player who does not hide his boredom on this surface, the Russian Daniil Medvedev, unlike his compatriot Andrey Rublev, who since winning Monte Carlo in 2023 has seen different thing.

The German Zverev and the Australian Alex de Miñaur are also among the best so far this season, without forgetting the Argentine Sebastián Baez, winner this year in Rio and Santiago, both on dirt.

Next Sunday the main draw matches will begin in Monte Carlo. Barcelona will be played from April 15, Madrid from the 24th, Rome from May 8 and Roland Garros from the 26th. The ground is ready.