If Rafael Nadal wins the 2015 French Open, the feat could be considered more than a mild upset.
Tennis.com reported that Nadal's 2015 season of working feverishly to gain momentum only to have an ugly loss wipe it out continued Sunday at the Madrid Open. World No. 4 Nadal lost 6-3, 6-2'in the final to No. 3 Andy Murray.
Rafael Nadal ditches his new racket less than a month before the French Open
While Murray moved to 9-0 in matches on clay this season since his marriage to Kim Sears, Nadal lost on clay for the fourth time. The latest loss came in stunning fashion for the subpar performance from Nadal, the nine-time French Open champion and fabled "King of Clay."
"Even Rafa said he was going to 'delete' this one from his memory banks as soon as possible," tennis.com reported. "Nadal was profoundly out of rhythm from the first point, which he lost by burying a forehand in the bottom of the net, to the last point, which he lost by doing pretty much the same thing. He committed 26 unforced errors, 10 more than Murray, but the number still feels low. Maybe that's because these weren't just errors. They were wild, no-chance shanks that, when they weren't fluttering harmlessly into the net, caromed well past the baseline and outside of the doubles alleys."
Roger Federer still considers Rafael Nadal the French Open co-favorite with Novak Djokovic
Nadal will drop to No. 7 in the world rankings today for the first time in 10 years that he is out of the top five and has just the Rome Masters to play before the French Open begins later this month. Nadal is the five-time defending champion at Roland Garros but is in jeopardy of dropping out of the top eight when the second Grand Slam of the season arrives.
That means Nadal could face No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic as early as the round of 16 or the quarterfinals and his draw stands to be much tougher, regardless.
After an impressive semifinal win over Tomas Berdych, Nadal goes back to the drawing board.
"I cannot leave Madrid not happy," Nadal said. "I leave happy and just delete what happened today. I will just stay with the good thing that happened this week, and there are a lot of them, more good than bad. I will try to recover in Rome the feelings. I think I've made a step forward and I'm playing better. My game is better."
The problem for Nadal is he still seems several steps away from recapturing the form that led him to win those nine French Opens.
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