Roland Garros Preview - Nadal gives reasons to believe

In our final preview show ahead of this year's Roland Garros, we were live in our AirBnB in Paris to react to an astonishing Rafael Nadal press conferences as he confirmed that he's feeling better, said there's a chance he could play this tournament again next year, and revealed that he's been practising well in preparation for his first round match against Alexander Zverev. There was a dose of realism in there too - he hasn't played at a high level for a long time - but his mood was much more buoyant than we were expecting.

We also react to Hannah's latest column to talk about how Nadal's dominance at the French Open has made us feel over the years and how to come to terms with what the tournament will be like without him.

Finally, there's reaction to Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu's press conferences, chat about possible outsiders who could go on a run, a discussion about what would count as success for Novak Djokovic in 2024, and a run through the day one order of play.

OUR LINKS:

Join The Barge!

Become a Friend of the Tennis Podcast to also help us to produce the show year-round, receive exclusive access to bonus podcasts throughout 2024, including Tennis Re-Lived and Grand Slam review shows, read Hannah's Column and watch monthly live shows on YouTube.

Hannah’s latest column about Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros is available for Friends - https://bit.ly/HannahOnRafa

Sign up to receive our Newsletter (daily at Slams and weekly the rest of the year, featuring Matt’s Stat, mascot photos, predictions, and more)

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on Instagram (@thetennispodcast)

Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Check out our Shop

Read our New York Times profile

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.