Rivals wary of Nadal backlash

PARIS, May 24 (AFP): Rafael Nadal might be seen by some as losing his grip on the French Open crown, but his main rivals for the title don't share that view ahead of Sunday's opening day at Roland Garros.
The 27-year-old Spaniard has been strangely subdued during the long buildup to the consecration of the claycourt tennis season with just the one title to his name - at Madrid when Japan's Kei Nishikori was forced to retire in the final with a back injury.
Quarter-final defeats to David Ferrer in Monte Carlo and Nicolas Almagro in Barcelona were shocking and he was swept aside in the second and third sets by Novak Djokovic in the Rome final last week.
But ATP tour events are one thing, taking on eight-time winner Nadal at his Roland Garros stronghold is quite another.
French hope Jo-Wilfried Tsonga said that it would be pure folly to downplay the Spaniard's hopes of a record ninth title in Paris.
"If we have to look at the results these last couple of weeks, of course we can say that," he said.
"But when we look, you know, in the past, there is no reason to say Rafa is different than the other years.
Words echoed by Andy Murray, who led Nadal 4-2 in the deciding set in the Rome quarter-finals last week before losing it 7-5. It would not take long, he said, to establish whether or not there were any chinks in the Nadal armoury.