Rafa strolls through

Spare a thought for Yannick Hanfmann. The 27-year-old world No.184 declared before his first round match against Rafael Nadal that he could “definitely do some damage, if my serve and return work”. Yet funnily enough, despite that breezy optimism, it turned out that the 11-time Roland-Garros champion won 6-2, 6-1, 6-3, leaving Hanfmann “a little bit disappointed that I lost”.

Many a famous name has known the same feeling.

It was, of course, Hanfmann’s debut appearance on Court Philippe-Chatrier – and in a sense he had that in common with his opponent, given the astonishing rebuild of the arena over the last 12 months. Alas, further common ground with the 17-time Grand Slam champion wasn’t quite so easy to find, given that this was the German’s first Tour-level match since last September. He came into this tournament with just one Challenger level win under his belt this year.

His high point came in the nine-minute opening game. Nadal struggled briefly to settle into his serve, permitting Hanfmann four chances to break. It didn’t happen, and that was that. The King of Clay, the Duke of Dirt, the Ruler of the Red Stuff, the Titan of the Terre Battue … whatever your amusing alliteration of choice, Nadal won at a stroll. Anything else would have been unthinkable.

“The feeling of playing in this court is the same,” said Nadal of the new Chatrier. “The wind is coming the same way. Still a very, very big court. I don’t see any difference.”

Will there be any difference for the defending champion 13 days from now? Excitable soothsayers are alighting upon the fact that this is only the second year since 2004 (along with 2015) that Nadal has not won multiple titles prior to Roland-Garros, with just his Rome victory under his belt.

“In Monte Carlo I wasn’t ready,” offered Nadal in analysis of his clay season to date. “In Madrid I played well but I guess I didn’t play sufficiently well. You're playing against the best players in the world, and you lose. I managed to win in Rome.

“All I want is to fight and compete. And in Roland-Garros, it's the same. You can't hope to have always the same results. Now I'm fighting for this title, which is very important. I have my own analysis of what happened, and this tournament is very important for me. It's probably the most special and important in my tennis career.”

Up to a point, Hanfmann could say the same of Roland-Garros 2019. Gloomily, he pondered: “I tried to play some lefties in practice. I told them: ‘Maybe you can try to be Rafa a little bit.’ But nobody can be him. In the match, I tried to do what all the good players do against him and neutralise his second serve. But it’s quite hard.”

So there you have it. Playing Rafael Nadal at Roland-Garros is “quite hard”. Yep. That’s about the size of it.