美国国家公共电台 NPR--Hip injury forced Rafael Nadal to pull out of this year's French Open（在线收听）

Hip injury forced Rafael Nadal to pull out of this year's French Open

Transcript

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Jon Wertheim, senior writer for Sports Illustrated, who offers his perspective on defending champion Rafael Nadal missing the French Open this year.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

As fans head to the French Open this week to watch lesser-known players qualify for the main draw and to watch the legends practice, Rafael Nadal will not be there. He's recovering from a hip injury. So what does the French Open look like without him? Let's call Jon Wertheim, who's a senior writer for Sports Illustrated and an analyst at the Tennis Channel.

Hey there, Jon.

JON WERTHEIM: Hi, Steve. How are you?

INSKEEP: I'm OK. What's wrong with Nadal?

WERTHEIM: He has a hip injury he suffered in Australia. He's not played since. He is also almost 37 years old, which is, you know, almost dotage in tennis years. And what is a French Open without Nadal? It's like - you know, this is Prince without "Purple." This is going to be an interesting absence - big transition here.

INSKEEP: I guess we should say - is this right? - he has won the French Open 14 times, which must be the majority of the times he's ever played.

WERTHEIM: Not a typo. His match record - 112 and 3.

INSKEEP: Wow.

WERTHEIM: He's won this event more than any tennis player in history has ever won any other event. And you can imagine, with a player with 14 titles to his name absent, the field opens up.

INSKEEP: Well, let's talk about the field. Who would be a favorite then?

WERTHEIM: Novak Djokovic, who is tied with Nadal with 22 majors all-time, this sort of great duel is - you know, he's, on paper, the favorite, but he hasn't won a tournament since Australia. And he, too - he's 36 years old as well. So Carlos Alcaraz, the young Spaniard - sort of the seeds - these are the green shoots of Rafa. He just turned 20 years old. He's probably the favorite. He won the U.S. Open last year. He's a splendid player, but he's just coming off a loss to a player outside the top 100. So the big question is, does he look at this as sort of a one-off, or is his confidence dented headed into this big event?

INSKEEP: OK, so an injury may, in fact, open the way for some newer talent - possibly, anyway. What about on the women's side? I understand there's also a leading woman who will miss the French Open.

WERTHEIM: It's a similar type of story. Iga Swiatek of Poland - again, a splendid player. She's won this event twice before. She won the U.S. Open in the fall and didn't even play near her best tennis. But she, too, is coming off a defeat and an injury. But, you know, it's funny. Men tennis used to have these three stalwarts - Federer, Nadal, Djokovic - these three sort of reliable warhorses, and the women's field was wide-open. And now it's the men's field that's wide-open, and the women's field has their real favorite in Swiatek, provided she's fully healthy.

INSKEEP: What about Simona Halep? What happened to her?

WERTHEIM: Simona Halep is a former No. 1, a former French Open champion, and she, to great surprise, had a positive doping test. She hasn't played since. And recently this weekend, there was news that she had sort of a second violation of her biological passport. You know, essentially, that's, de facto, a second violation. So it's very out of character in as much as we ever know these athletes. There's a lot of surprise, but it doesn't look good. And she's north of age 30, and two doping violations does not bode well for a comeback.

INSKEEP: I guess you better explain what a biological passport is for those who don't know.

WERTHEIM: In international athletics, one way to try to crack down on doping was they had players essentially provide a biological passport of all their bio info and bio data. And if there were inconsistencies, if there was a spike in testosterone, that would be an indication of doping. And we haven't had many violations of this. Usually it's sort of a dirty doping test. Usually it's a violation. But in this case, it's these irregularities in the biological passport.

INSKEEP: Understood. Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated. Thanks so much.

WERTHEIM: Thanks. Any time.