Before he had struck a ball in anger at this French Open it was clear that 13-time champion Rafael Nadal faced perhaps the toughest Roland Garros task of his career.
Returning to a venue he has owned so emphatically, Nadal had seen his season disrupted by a rib injury and then dogged by a long-standing foot problem. His fitness was a major concern even before the draw threw up a run full of them, the collision course set for a quarter-final meeting with world No1 Novak Djokovic, and the young pretender, Carlos Alcaraz, likely to be waiting beyond that.
