Nadal Reportedly Requested His Roland Garros Clash With Zverev To Be A Day Match

Rafael Nadal will face Alexander Zverev in the opening round of the 2024 Roland Garros, and as per Nadal's request, it will be a day match.

Roland Garros has tinkered quite a bit with the event's schedule over the years. There has been a lot of strife between players and the organizers regarding the night matches, as they used to have two of them, but this year, they will only have one.

It used to begin rather late, 21:00 local time, which a lot of players didn't like. The conditions are very specific at night, as everything slows down even more, so there were a lot of long matches at a time when players really wanted to just go to bed.

Nobody wants to be stuck playing tennis at midnight, especially not the top seeds. Iga Swiatek famously asked the event to play day matches, which was regularly granted.

The reason top seeds were mostly picked to play then was to maximize the crowd attendance. As such, many were certain that the blockbuster between Nadal and Zverev would be played at night to maximize the crowd.

Read also

'He Just Hasn't Played Many Matches': Schett Questions Djokovic Motivation Levels

It won't because the Spaniard apparently requested it to be a day match. The report comes from L'Equipe, a publication in France. The match will be the third match in the day schedule, so it will probably be later in the day, but not quite at night either.

Nadal's request is pretty simple to understand. A day match favors him more than a night match because the ball flies a bit quicker. He can be more aggressive, which he'll need to be, as he really doesn't want to be stuck playing long rallies against Zverev.

That's a race against time he likely can't win. It's going to be tough regardless, though his chances will rise a bit because of this.

Read also

'I Don't Want To Close The Door': Nadal Refuses To Confirm That 2024 Roland Garros Is His Last