Time passes and nothing changes in Paris: Rafael Nadal is a guy with fixed habits.
For just as he jumps the lines of the clay like a child who plays with the shadows on the asphalt, or just as he places the bottles diagonally and hangs out the towels with patient care, he also occupies a hotel room on the banks of the Seine, a step away from the Eiffel Tower, and he trains at noon, now at the Jean Bouin venue, under the supervision of his clan, the Nadal clan.
Rafael Nadal is playing with Carlos Moyá and Marc López, and Francis Roig, Dr. Ángel Ruiz-Cotorro and Rafael Maymó, his physiotherapist, are watching the scene. Sebastian, the father of talent, and his uncles Miquel Àngel and Rafael can also be seen there.
(This time Toni Nadal does not appear, immersed as he is in his project at the Manacorí academy and with his pupil, Felix Auger-Aliassime)
–One more serve –says Rafael Nadal on court 26 of the Jean Bouin venue, and stands at the back of the court to subtract the services that Marc López throws at him.
That factor, the rest, is going to be key this Friday
We will see him from 3pm, in the semifinal that will face the man from Manacori with Sasha Zverev. The German is a server, he frequents 200 km / h and he is fine, Carlos Alcaraz knows it well, his victim three days ago, in the quarterfinals.
Nadal prolongs the work for an hour and a half, a long time under the radiant Parisian spring sun, and in the meantime he rationalizes his movements on the track. Analysts think about that element.
"He barely moves, he plays in the space of a tile," says one.
The memory stings.
Twenty days ago, Nadal surrendered in the quarterfinals to Denis Shapovalov and then limped before reporters, writhing in pain, as he said:
I don't know how much longer I can take this...
(...)
–Have you experienced many scenes like that day? –We asked Moyá, always kind to the press, always solicitous.
-As much as that day is not usual. But sometimes it happens to him in training, or at some point in the past year. We live with those moments of pain, and this affects the team. But above all, it affects him.
–And how did you manage to recover and get to Paris?
–We have already said that we will tell more things when this is over. But his is a disease (Müller-Weiss syndrome, a degenerative problem), and we are talking about it a lot and the subject of tennis and the fact that Nadal is in the semifinals are ignored. Right now, there is no doubt that the foot will last the rest of the tournament.
-The surprising thing is that it has come this far, isn't it? –She insists.
-Surprised? I'm not. Those closest to him are not. The expectations that he generates are always very high, although this time the season has been atypical. Most of the time he reached Roland Garros with many titles and this time it has not been like that. Perhaps they lack continuity and games, but the great athletes grow in the face of great demands and almost always respond. And Nadal is one of them, and this is Roland Garros.
His speech centers the debate.
The curious, and also the rivals, are overwhelmed by the Nothingness of the place. The weight of the myth, like the sculpture that receives the visitor, plummets down on anyone who dares to question it.
The manacorí adds thirteen titles here, doesn't this fact legitimize you?
All of this is applauded by the public.
Resigned, the French roar at the exploits of their adopted son, who would have thought 17 years ago, when they booed that long-haired teenager, suspenders and pirate pants who spouted nonsense at press conferences while running over the frustrated French school, Gasquet or Grosjean.
