Former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash has revealed why World No. 1 Rafael Nadal has been the most dominant player ever on the red dirt.
Nadal, who has won the French Open a record ten times is the overwhelming favourite to claim his 17th Grand Slam and an 11th Roland Garros crown. No player in the history of tennis has won a single Major so many times and Nadal is once again the man to beat in Paris.
Since winning the title on debut in 2005, the Spaniard has only been beaten twice on the Parisian clay. Those two defeats came at the hands of Sweden’s Robin Soderling in 2009 when he was suffering with knee problems and against Novak Djokovic in 2015 when he was having issues with his confidence and was enduring a spell of poor form.
And former World No. 4 Cash has explained the factors behind the complete dominance of the 31-year-old Majorcan on the surface.
“He’s unbelievably fast, and he can keep going forever, which helps on the clay,” Cash told CNN.
“He keeps getting the ball back, his speed and athleticism is just phenomenal.
“His footwork on the clay is amazing, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody move that quick on the clay.
“Mentally, he’s just ferocious.
“Clay is one of the toughest surfaces to be successful at, because you have to be focused all the time, the momentum can change very quickly.
“On grass or other courts, you can hold your serve, or hit a couple of big serves and stay in it, but not on the clay, you have to be persistent all the time.”
