PARIS -- Rafael Nadal's results over the past two years have provided enough vivid reminders of how his stature in the tennis world has dipped. But the fact that another little comedown would be visited upon him even here at the French Open -- the Grand Slam tournament he has dominated like no one else -- seemed to startle Nadal some on Friday.
Instead of being asked about his own stature as a nine-time champion at Roland Garros or how he is finally show signs of reviving his game after a long, sometimes tortured title drought that he finally snapped at nine months with a March win at the Argentina Open, the first inquiry put to Nadal at his pretournament press conference was about his longtime rival Roger Federer, who isn't even playing here.
"Is it different for me? No," Nadal said, raising his right eyebrow.
Since when has Nadal ever had to worry more about Federer at the French Open than Federer had to worry about him?
Nadal, who turns 30 on June 3, will be considered the king of clay-court tennis when he retires, no matter what happens here in the next two weeks. Much like Federer, whose withdrawal from the tournament on Wednesday (back trouble) snapped his streak of 65 straight major tournaments played, Nadal might never climb back to No. 1 in the world again. After two seasons that were truncated by injuries and long absences from the tour, Nadal has admitted that until very recently, he was suffering from a crisis of confidence -- something Federer has rarely, if ever, publicly confessed.
Nadal said he sometimes even experienced full-blown anxiety attacks during matches. At his worst, simple things, such as smacking his forehand -- once the most reliable shot of his game -- eventually began to elude him. He was spraying balls long and wide, losing in tournaments earlier than usual and sliding down the world rankings to his current spot of fifth.
Just as alarmingly, Nadal no longer threw off that trademark feeling that he was going to hang on in a match until he won it, no matter how large a deficit he was facing, no matter how long he had to stay on the court. That was unlike him too.
His reputation took another hit when a former French sports minister, Roselyne Bachelot, insinuated after Maria Sharapova was suspended for testing positive for meldonium that Nadal had served a covered-up ban for a positive drug test in 2012. Nadal hotly denied the charge -- "I am a completely clean guy," he shot back -- and is now suing Bachelot in France.
All of that complicates matters for Nadal. He probably wouldn't have blinked at all on Friday if the first question put to him had been about top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who defeated him last week on clay at the Italian Open, or Andy Murray, who beat him in Madrid last month. People forget Murray spent a significant portion of his junior career playing on clay, because Murray is more identified with Wimbledon. Djokovic has 11 Slam titles overall but is still gunning for his first French Open title, and he admitted Friday that he yearns "to get my hands on" the trophy. If Nadal wins again, he will break a tie with Martina Navratilova for the most single titles won (nine) at the same Grand Slam tournament.
Both Djokovic and Murray are bigger favorites here this year than Nadal. But Nadal can at least counter that his last matches against them -- despite being losses -- convinced him his level of play has been trending up in recent weeks. Given how Nadal has always been an open book emotionally, if we believed him when he has said there were times in the past year when he felt he was literally suffering on-court anxiety attacks, then we should probably believe him when he suggests he is finally pulling out of it.
Francis Roig, one of Nadal's coaches, has said Nadal again believes he can do very well in this tournament.
Nadal, never one to boast or take anything for granted, voiced the same optimism on Friday. He spoke about needing to be "ready to suffer for a little bit," starting with his opening match against hard-serving Sam Groth. He seemed to brighten a little later in his press conference when someone asked him how it felt to be back in "your stadium."
For a second, it seemed like the good old days again.
"It's always a special feeling when you're able to come back in such a beautiful and important place, but especially for me, because it's the most important place in my career, without a doubt," Nadal answered. "I'm happy the way I have played since [making the semis at] Indian Wells. A lot of tournaments in a row [I've been] playing well. I need to just keep going."
He'd like to be known as the King of Clay again -- not a past-his-prime champion who suddenly got clay feet.