There will be an unfamiliar number between brackets next to Rafael Nadal’s name in the French Open draw, which will be conducted in Paris on Friday.
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Depending on whether Milos Raonic will play or not (he’s recovering from a foot surgery), Nadal will either be seeded No 6 or No 7 at Roland Garros – his lowest ever position at the tournament he has won a record nine times.
Having a 5-8 seeding means Nadal can fall in the same quarter as Novak Djokovic and the pair could face off as early as the last-eight stage in Paris.
Other potential quarter-final opponents for Nadal would be Roger Federer, Andy Murray or Tomas Berdych, who round-up the world’s top four.
Nadal absolutely pulverizing the ball in his 1st French Open training session, hitting with Kevin Anderson.
— Christopher Clarey (@christophclarey) May 20, 2015
The subject of whether French Open organisers should consider bumping up Nadal’s seeding given his incredible record at the event has been broached before and the people at the Federation Francaise de Tennis (FFT) have made it clear they have no intentions of doing so.
Wimbledon is the only major that takes into account previous results and has a specific formula that calculates a player’s seeding. The other three majors just stick to the ATP and WTA rankings.
Two years ago when Nadal was coming back from a knee injury, the Spaniard had briefly dropped to No 5 in the world after Monte Carlo and could have possibly been seeded No 5 at the French Open. In the build-up to Paris at the time, I felt that giving him a higher seeding was the way to go and so did many others.
But alas, Nadal ended up being seeded No 3 since Murray had pulled out and the Spaniard had managed to move up to No 4 in the world. This time, there is no way out.
Nadal could face Djokovic as early as the quarters and I actually think it is fair. This isn’t like two years ago when Nadal was having a phenomenal comeback from injury and was in-form.
This season, Nadal is simply not playing well enough and his slip in the rankings isn’t because he was sidelined but because he hasn’t been getting good results that can keep him high in the standings.
Why would he deserve a higher ranking when everyone above him has been playing better than him? The answer is, he doesn’t.
Surprisingly enough, Djokovic told the media in Rome that he thinks the FFT should bump up Nadal’s seeding. Surely this is just Djokovic trying to be respectful and diplomatic.
Nadal always needs time to reach his peak in Paris and tends to struggle in the earlier rounds. Facing Djokovic in a quarter-final instead of a final could make all the difference for the Serb who has lost to Nadal six times in Paris and his mental strength tends to go down a notch when he’s playing him there.
