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In winning the French Open 11 of the last 14 years, Rafael Nadal of Spain has all but cemented his tennis shoes into the terre battue, or red clay, of Roland Garros.
That said, the 32-year-old failed to reach the final of a clay-court tournament until he beat Novak Djokovic to win this year’s Italian Open, the final warm-up before the French Open.
It was the first time since 2004, Nadal’s second year on tour, that he had gone nearly five months into the season without winning an ATP title.
Simona Halep, who won her first, and so far only, major at Roland Garros in 2018, lost out on a chance to return to the No.