Rafael Nadal is unlikely to be seeded at Roland Garros this year after tournament director Amélie Mauresmo confirmed the topic was off the table, while also hinting at a possible tribute to the tennis great.
It remains to be seen whether Nadal will compete in the clay-court Grand Slam this year, as he admitted earlier in the week that he still does not feel competitive after his recent injuries.
“If I arrive in Paris the way I feel today, I will not play,” he said. “I will play at Roland Garros if I feel competitive. If I can play, I play. If I can’t play, I can’t. It won’t be the end of the world or the end of my career. I still have goals after Roland Garros, like the Olympics.”
However, that statement came before he won his opening match at the Madrid Open on Thursday, the 14-time Grand Slam winner beating wildcard Darwin Blanch 6-1, 6-0 to kick off his campaign.
The Madrid Open and the Italian Open will serve to test his physical condition before Roland Garros, which begins on May 26.
After missing the 2023 edition with a hip flexor injury, this year’s French Open looks set to be Nadal’s last and Mauresmo has all but confirmed he will not be seeded for the tournament.
The Spaniard currently sits at No.512 in the ATP rankings after his long absence and there had been suggestions that Roland Garros officials might change their seeding rule and award Nadal a special seed given his stature, but that will not be the case.
“At the moment, it’s not a topic of discussion…,” she said. “Wimbledon has done it for a long, long, long time, and it’s certainly brought benefits, but we’ve also seen all the downsides that it could bring. At the moment, it’s not on the table.”
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If Nadal is unseeded, he could then face any of the big guns, including defending champion Novak Djokovic, world number two Jannik Sinner and two-time Grand Slam winner Carlos Alcaraz in the first round.
As for whether Nadal will make a grand farewell, former world number one Mauresmo added: “We keep our fingers crossed for him first of all, for us too obviously. We are following closely what is happening for him on the court. We are in contact with his team. Whether there will be a tribute depends a lot on him. We will follow his wishes.”
