Patrick McEnroe argues for number 1 or 2 seed for Nadal at Roland Garros

| by Balasz Virag

Rafael Nadal is currently ranked outside of the top 10 but Patrick McEnroe feels like he should be seeded either first or second at the Roland Garros.

This year's Roland Garros will likely see Nadal with his lowest seed in years. The Spaniard is ranked outside of the top 10 at the moment and he's only going to trend downward as his return to tennis is still not clear. There might be even a chance that Nadal misses the event altogether, especially after his recent grim update but many would agree that he's likely going to play at any cost.

The question about Rafa is much dodgier. We don't know if he's gonna be ready. We've seen some video of him practicing. Normally he likes to play a lot on clay to get himself ready. He's the kind of guy that needs matches but does he really need that many matches at this point in his career?.

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According to Patrick McEnroe, the main thing for Nadal will be to be physically fit which is quite self-explanatory. He can play himself into shape in the earlier rounds but being able to go out and compete at the highest level will be most important in giving himself a chance to win as McEnroe said according to Sportskeeda.

If he's physically fit, that's the number one thing for him, because he can play his way into the French (Open). In the first couple of rounds, he usually steamrolls people. That gets him court time, that gets him out there for a couple of hours at a stretch.

For McEnroe, another thing will be the seeding. If Nadal isn't seeded high enough, he may face the likes of Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz early on. That's what happened last year when Nadal and Djokovic met in the quarter-final and McEnroe wasn't happy about it. He would like to see them seeded first or second.

He's dropped down to like 15 in the rankings. That will be another interesting thing. The French Federation who makes the draws and the seedings, they've always gone by the rules, the rankings. When Rafa faced Djoker in the quarters, I didn't like that but they're not going to change.

If they didn't change last year, I can't imagine that they're going to put Rafa as the one or two seed, which I personally think they should, at least top 4, because now, unless he goes on some run in these clay-court tournaments, which is looking unlikely based on how many he's going to play, he's going to be well outside the top 10 come time for the Roland Garros. So that is the biggest question mark that we all want to have an answer for.

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