A Roland-Garros,
The Panama hats are put away at the bottom of the drawer, the little shirts replaced by mid-season jackets which still seem a little too light, the revision sheets have gathered dust, the clay has been swept away by a blue and gray pitch. season surrounded by glass. At Roland-Garros, tennis and its summer rays of sunshine were put aside to let, for a week, the Greenweez Paris Major Premier Padel, its full name, take place under the autumn gray.
But, for the faithful of the Porte d’Auteuil tournament, there are things that do not change. The food is always overpriced (7 euros for a hot dog, 5 euros for a Coke, what an indignity), the Philippe-Chatrier court is not really full, far from it, and the shadow of Rafael Nadal hovers above of the complex. Even at padel, the Spaniard’s name is on everyone’s lips, as if it was absolutely necessary to mention the Bull of Manacor to be allowed to play in his lair.
“Obligated to think of him”
All the players interviewed this Monday, during the first round of the tournament, mentioned the name of the one who lifted the Musketeers’ Cup fourteen times. “You’re completely obligated to think about him,” explains 20 Minutes the Frenchman Maxime Joris, beaten with Thomas Vanbauce when they entered the fray on the Philippe-Chatrier court. Just practicing on it on Friday, we said to ourselves that it was there that Nadal had won the tournament 14 times. And we who are in the second car of padel, we are lucky to be able to play on such a legendary field. »
Winners of the French duo, the Spaniards Ignacio Sager and Salvador Oria had also had thoughts for Rafael Nadal, of whom we still do not know if his defeat in the first round against Alexander Zverev, last May, was his last match on the Parisian ocher. “You feel something special when you arrive here, with all the history between Rafael Nadal and Roland-Garros,” comments Sager (35th player in the world). He’s a guy who marked the history of this site and when you come there, you remember all the victories you saw on TV. »
Nadal’s routine in the corridors in the heads
His 112 matches (out of 116) won at Roland-Garros, His battles in the final against Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic, his well-aligned bottles, his little knocks before serving… Everything comes to mind for our padel riders, many of whom are Among them come from tennis, like Thomas Leygue, French No. 1, who qualified for the second round with his Argentinian partner, Ignacio Piotto Albornoz:
« I have been a tennis fan since I was little, I watched all his big matches. When you enter the field, you are in your bubble. You only think about trying to do well, to play your game, to implement the coach’s tactics. But, on the other hand, when you’re in the hallway before the match, that’s all you think about. Because that’s the image we have of Nadal: seeing him jump, the sprints, the back and forth. In this corridor, before entering Philippe-Chatrier, it is Nadal who comes to mind. » »
Rafael Nadal’s routine in the corridors of Roland does not only intrigue our Frenchman. Even Miguel Benitez Lara (52nd player in the world), who also qualified for the next round, where he will face with Alvaro Cepero one of the best players in the world, Alejandro Galan, was intrigued by the habits and customs of “Rafa” before setting foot on the Philippe-Chatrier court for the very first time. In the footsteps of the idol of an entire country.
“Reproduce what Rafa has done so many times”
“Before our match, I was sitting in the stands, and I looked for videos of how Rafa entered the court, to see the route he made,” the Spaniard tells us. I didn’t know exactly, and the organizers told me that we were going to do the same. So I watched the video to be sure. The route of the warm-up room, the stairs that go up to the court… When I saw that it was the same, I couldn’t wait to get back to the Chatrier, reproduce this that Rafa has done so many times, so that we can do it too. »
When the time came, a little pang of disappointment crossed Benitez Lara. “As with Rafa, I expected the announcer [Marc Maury] be the same, the one who announces all the tournaments he has won, the Andalusian laughs. 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008… It was super long, an eternity. » But the absence of Marc Maury was not such bad news after all. Because our Spaniard, very friendly indeed, had perhaps forgotten that he has not yet won any padel tournament on the circuit. It’s not Rafael Nadal who wants.
