Casper Ruud, Felix Auger-Aliassime weigh in on if Rafael Nadal's pre-match routine is intimidating ahead of French Open

It has been said that sometimes players are beaten before they step on the court with the greats. How daunting must it be, for example, to face Rafael Nadal at the French Open, where he has a 112-3 win-loss record and has lifted the trophy 14 times? Ad If there is an intimidation factor it is perhaps only added to when players have to stand in the tunnel before facing Nadal. Roland-GarrosMurray handed difficult Bordeaux draw as Nadal turns down wild cardYESTERDAY AT 08:28 While most players stand and wait with their bags to be called out, Nadal is often energised and warming up with sprints up and down the corridor.

Those pre-match moments were shown on Netflix’s Break Point series when Felix Auger-Aliassime and Casper Ruud were facing Nadal at the French Open last year. Auger-Aliassime and Ruud both stood in the corridor looking on as Nadal, who was just a few metres away, jumped up and down and hit practice shots. Was there an intimidation factor behind Nadal’s routine? Even though both went on to lose – Auger-Aliassime in the last 16 and Ruud in the final – they do not think the pre-match activity had anything to do with the outcome.

“I have seen it hundreds of time before so it wasn’t really a surprise,” Ruud said on a Break Point reunion episode. “People say I already lost the match before going on court and that might be true, but if I had won it might be like 'Casper won because he stayed cool', you can turn it around however you want. “That’s his routine.

What the cameras didn’t show was we were both in the gym for 30 minutes beforehand warming up and doing everything. I was sweating and ready to go. “I knew it was going to happen and I knew he was going to pull it out or do it, but it didn’t really make a