Mariano Navone (No. 32 in the ATP world ranking) is living, in Roland Garros, some dream days. After qualifying for his first Grand Slam tournament, getting among the best 40 in the world and managing to reach two finals on the men’s circuit (Rio de Janeiro and Bucharest), 2024 for the native of 9 de Julio seemed like it couldn’t go better. However, before the start of the French Open, he gave himself a great pleasure and trained with none other than Rafael Nadal.
And in conversation with ESPN from Paris, the fourth best racket in Argentina recounted the intimacy of that meeting that will be forever marked in her memories: “It was incredible because we trained in the patio of her house, which is the Philippe Chatrier, who lost nothing more than three games in his life there. It was incredible to play with Rafa and at Philippe, where I had never trained. He and his entire team were very cool.
He later revealed that his team and Rafael Nadal’s team had already been in contact in the previous weeks: “We had already talked two or three times about going to train and it had not happened because they had summoned us to train in Mallorca.”
“But it was really very nice, I enjoyed it a lot. The truth is that Rafa is playing well and it is good that he is back at his highest level. I am enjoying this possibility that I was given that years ago I would have thought It is impossible to be with him as equals on a court training. It is special, especially because of the place and especially because of who is in that place. I think it is one of the most beautiful things about this Roland Garros, but well, this is just over. start” concluded Mariano Navone from the French Open Club House.
The ship He will debut in Paris against a former Top 10: Pablo Carreño Busta. The Spaniard, who entered through protected ranking, is currently outside the top 1000 players in the ATP world rankings. Furthermore, he has not played an official match since October 2023, when he lost to the Italian Mattia Bellucci in the round of 16 of the Malaga Challenger.
It should be noted that Carreño Busta was inactive for eight months during 2023 due to an injury to one of his elbows. After recovering, he competed on the Challenger circuit. However, after playing the aforementioned Andalusian tournament he stopped again for six months, marking his return to professional tennis at Roland Garros 2024.
