Nadal and Djokovic’s doubts raise a question no one has asked since 2005 | Relief

There is a thermometer that never fails to measure people’s mood. Novak Djokovic: The length of your press conferences. When he wins, when he is in a good mood, he answers in all languages, gives long and calm answers and smiles here and there. But When he loses, his time in front of the microphones is cut short. He answers in short sentences, avoids lengthy analysis, and cannot wait to leave the room.

A month ago in Monte Carlo, he devoted four minutes to journalists after losing in the semi-finals. A few weeks ago in Indian Wells, the stopwatch stopped at five minutes. And on Sunday, after the worst defeat of his career in Rome against Alejandro Tabilo (6-2 and 6-3 in the third round), He dispatched reporters in just over six minutes. Almost hello and goodbye.

The day before, on Saturday, Press conference of Rafael Nadal in Rome after his speech loss to Hurkacz (6-1 and 6-3) It lasted 13 minutes.

The Spaniard spent 20 minutes with reporters in Madrid after his elimination and also spent the same amount of time in Barcelona after his second-round fall. In Nadal’s case, his thermometer is not time, but words.

Both Djokovic’s minutes and Nadal’s words show that something is wrong.. This is normal and understandable, since the two tennis players are closer to 40 than 30, but they are already accustomed to such regularity that Seeing them both depressed at the same time is something completely unusual. And even less in a month like May and at a tournament like Rome., where they have won 16 of the last 19 editions. They played nine games over the weekend.

Who is the favorite at Roland Garros?

Nadal and Djokovic’s current doubts fuel a question no one has asked since 2005: who is the favorite at Roland Garros? Since the year the Spaniard first beat Philippe Chatrier, no one has asked anything like that, because the answer has always been obvious: Nadal or, otherwise, Djokovic.

But now we are facing the most uncertain Roland Garros since the beginning of the Nadalian dictatorship.. The Spaniard hasn’t even decided yet whether he will play in Paris. “Today it seems impossible to think about going to Roland Garros to fight for something,” he said on Saturday in Rome after a painful defeat to Hurkacz. The Pole, not at all an expert on land, opened up Nadal and showed him that He still has a lot of work to do if he wants to get to Paris and have any chance of doing anything. And time is of the essence: two weeks left.

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Something similar can be said about Djokovic. The Serbian finished the 2023 season with flying colors, winning the ATP Finals and capping a season in which he won Australia, Roland Garros and the US Open, but Since the new course began, its flame has been extinguished. At the moment, there are 12 wins and five losses, zero titles in reserve and strange sensations. So much so that he revolutionized his team in search of new incentives.

“Everything should improve if I even have the opportunity to win at Roland Garros.”Djokovic said in Rome, where, to make matters worse, he was accidentally hit in the head with a bottle on Friday while signing autographs. “I received medical attention and spent half an hour or an hour with nausea, dizziness, blood and a variety of different things.”

There’s too much, too much going on. Because if the upcoming Roland Garros is the most uncertain, it will not only be because of the delicate state of Nadal and Djokovic. Those who should be rubbing their hands, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, are now in trouble.

The Italian, Australian champion, has a thigh injury that forced him to leave Madrid and prevented him from playing in Rome. Alcaraz, for his part, has had a hand injury for more than a month, which has not fully healed. Everything is so strange that a situation could arise that Sinner will rise to first place for the first time immediately after Roland Garros and without having to play it.

: If Djokovic, who is defending his title, loses before the final, Sinner will become the next world number one.

In such a situation at Roland Garros, anything can happen. Will Nadal be able to recover in time? Is Djokovic saving himself? Will Sinner and Alcaraz arrive? Or will the time of the “outsider” come? Tsitsipas, Ruud, Medvedev, Rublev?