Calendar Grand Slam will ‘motivate Rafael Nadal to keep going’, says former British No 1

Tim Henman hopes the chance to complete the Calendar Grand Slam will motivate Rafael Nadal to play at Wimbledon and beyond.

Nadal has won the first two major tournaments of the year for the first time in his career after adding a 14th French Open title to the Australian Open he won in January.

There will be doubts surrounding his participation at SW19 in only three weeks due to the chronic foot injury which has plagued the Spaniard and prompted rumours of retirement.

But the 36-year-old said after his three-set demolition of Casper Ruud at Roland Garros that he would “keep fighting to keep on going”.

King in his castle #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/9g7vn6DJlT

— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 5, 2022

Eurosport pundit and former British No 1 Henman said: “When you have won as much as he has, you just never know what’s around the corner.

“I think he has been very frank, and very honest, to say that he doesn’t know if he is going to be back here. But when you see a performance like that – he’s 3-1 down in the second set, he wins 11 games in a row – it was just another clay-court masterclass.

“You would have thought that when he wins these big titles – don’t forget he’s won the Australian Open, the French Open, now you can talk about the Grand Slam being on – surely it is going to motivate him to keep on going.

“That’s what we are keeping our fingers crossed for because it’s a privilege to see one of the greatest champions in our sport playing like that.”