American tennis great John McEnroe feels Rafael Nadal being unseeded at the 2024 French Open is a bit cruel after the 22-time Grand Slam champion was drawn against Alexander Zverev in the opening round.
McEnroe called tournament’s decision to keep Nadal unseeded as crazy given the Spaniard in a 14-time champion at the French major. Nadal is set to take on ATP #4 Zverev who is entering the tournament as Italian Open champion.
Nadal is using a protected ranking to play the Roland Garros due to his current World #276 ranking and it will be the first that former World No. 1 enters the clay court major unseeded. He has not been seeded lower than 6th in his 18 previous appearances on the Parisian clay.
Nadal holds a mindboggling record of 14 French Open victories which is the highest number of titles any player has won at a single major event in tennis history.
McEnroe, a former World No. 1 believes Nadal’s unsurmountable records at the French Open should help him get a seed status this year.
“It makes no sense that someone who has won 14 times is not seeded. It is the way the tournament has always acted. For me it is crazy,” the 77-time ATP singles titlist told the media, as quoted by Marca.
“It is the most interesting first round of a Major that I remember and the most tough [in the] Open Era for someone like Nadal.”
“He has to do whatever he wants. He loves to compete and if he loses to Zverev it does not mean that all his records at Roland Garros will be lost. Maybe his time has come to be a father and everyone’s time has come.
“Maybe I’m wrong and he’ll be able to do something special here. It’s a question mark as to how his body will recover as the rounds go by.
“On the one hand it will be a surprise, and on the other it won’t. People like him, Novak or Roger are Superman.”
The 7-time Grand Slam champion also assessed that three-time French Open semi-finalist Zverev is a genuine contender to win the title.
“[Zverev] has a real chance of winning in Paris if he focuses solely and exclusively on tennis and not on other things off the court. I believe that the 2020 US Open should have been his. Sascha’s serve is working better than ever,” McEnroe added.