Rafa Nadal wins Roland Garros, but will he play Wimbledon?

Rafael Nadal

Rafa Nadal reached his 14th final at Roland Garros. And, he has won them all. On Sunday he easily won, stepping on Casper Ruud 6-3, 6-3, 6-0.

He lost just six games. He played almost seamless. The new comer, Ruud, could not get in and find any kind of a solution. He was battered.

Nadal was already to sprint on the clay, and he poked it to take-no-prisoners.

Nadal, who now has won 14 majors in Paris, and overall, he has 22 Grand Slams. He is the current best player ever.

The “King of Clay” is ahead of Novak Djokovic, who has 20 Slams, and also, Roger Federer has 20, too. It is possible that Djokovic can win a few more Grand Slams, and if the Swiss returns at some point, the 40-year-old Federer will have a slight chance to win again, but that would be almost impossible because he has been seriously injured a lot in the past few years.
 
The 36-year-old Nadal is also hurt quite a bit. He has to decide to play Wimbledon in a couple more weeks, as his foot is very sore, so much so that he couldn’t feel it. The doctor helped him, each day, and he managed to not only smack his phenomenal forehand, but his backhand is so steady. Plus, at the net, he can just put it away, and at the drop shots, too.

Will Nadal go to Wimbledon?

“If I am able to play with anti-inflammatories, yes – to play with anesthetic injections, no. I don’t want to put myself in that position again,” Nadal said. “That’s what we are gonna try. If that works, I gonna keep going. If that not works, then gonna be another story. And then I gonna ask to myself about if I am ready to do a major thing… a major surgery that don’t guarantee me to be able to be competitive again and it gonna take a long time to be back.”

If he does not play, Djokovic will be there, the favorite [who Nadal beat him in the quarters at RG]. Alexander Zverev looked terrific at RG, and then he wrenched his leg and he retired against Nadal. It would be surprising that Zverev can actually play at Wimbledon.

England announced that Russia and Belarus cannot play there, due to the terrible Russian invasion into Ukraine. So at least right now, the No. 2 Daniil Medvedev won’t be there, as well as Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov, among others.

It is early, but in a few weeks perhaps that Stefanos Tsitsipas, Carlos Alcaraz and Felix Auger-Aliassime will ready to touch on the grass.