Stan Wawrinka, winner in 2015, or Andy Murray, finalist in 2016, have had the pleasure of setting foot on the clay at the Roland-Garros Central for a few days.
But the undisputed master of the place, Rafael Nadal, had not yet set foot on this short new look.
It is now done.
Arrived Wednesday in the capital, the world n ° 2 made his first Parisian training this Thursday at 2 pm in front of empty stands, which may not be much more filled during the competition… It was especially not slow to test the new retractable roof that overhangs the stands.
Weather obliges, it has indeed unfolded its eleven wings at the beginning of the afternoon.
Result, the strikes of the Spaniard resonate even more ...
Rafael Nadal is training UNDER THE ROOF of Chatrier at @rolandgarros 😍
(📽️ @QuentinMoynet) pic.twitter.com/rL0ZxfLdWl
- We Are Tennis France (@WeAreTennisFR) September 24, 2020
In white T-shirt, blue shorts and black cap upside down, the Mallorcan hadn't seen his dust garden for 473 days and his twelfth coronation against the Austrian Dominic Thiem.
Nadal was then scheduled for a second session in the late afternoon with the German Alexander Zverev.
Double efforts to find some benchmarks before the opening of the tournament.
Favorite, with Thiem and Djokovic
The man with the 19 major titles, who skipped the summer tour after confinement, has only played three small games in seven months and remains on a defeat in the quarterfinals in Rome against the Argentinian Schwartzman.
He will have to share the status of favorite with Thiem, recent winner in New York and who discovers the Suzanne-Lenglen court this Thursday, and Djokovic, who should take possession of the premises on Friday.
"I see him winning Roland Garros but it will be very complicated ...", slipped to the Spanish sports daily Marca Francisco Roig, his co-trainer with Carlos Moya.
That backhand has arrived ... @ ThiemDomi #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/OH1E9mVaGA
- Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) September 24, 2020