'Amazing if he can keep this up' - Mats Wilander stunned by Rafael Nadal career resurgence ahead of French Open

Eurosport expert Mats Wilander has been left stunned by Rafael Nadal's career resurgence so far this season ahead of the French Open. The 35-year-old has the chance to post one of the best-ever starts to a tennis season at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells after having already made a staggeringly strong start to the year. Ad/> Nadal, remarkably, is 15-0 for the year after winning the Melbourne Summer Set, Australian Open and Mexican Open, and he has the opportunity to win a further six matches at Indian Wells, which is the first Masters 1000 event of the season and starts on Thursday, March 10.

TennisPaula Badosa — 'People have to see that athletes are not robots' — Players’ Voice6 HOURS AGO Just three more victories would see him move up into third place for the longest unbeaten start to a season in the Open era. Only Novak Djokovic has enjoyed better starts to a season after going 26-0 in 2020 and 41-0 in 2011, and Wilander cannot believe what he has seen from the Spaniard. «Obviously, he is turning 36 during the French Open, and it would be amazing if he can keep this up when we really thought last year that this was very close to being the end of Rafa's career,» Wilander told Eurosport.

«He thought himself it could be close to the end of his career. I would never imagine that he would be able to do what he is doing, even though he would always be playing physically. No, not in a million years would I have thought that Rafael Nadal could do that, not this part of the year.

»Now we are back to Rafael Nadal, the ageless clay court king. I mean, he is closer to 16 years old than he is 36 years old emotionally, and that is where he separates himself from the others in the 'big three', I have to say. «I'm sure there are