PARIS — Rafael Nadal just may be The King of Clay. The Spaniard recently set a record by winning 50 consecutive sets on the surface. He is once again the favorite to win this year’s French Open, the only one of professional tennis’ four grand slams played on clay courts.
But the people who know Roland Garros’s crimson grounds most intimately rarely pick up rackets. They are the tournament’s groundskeepers; some have worked the tournament since before 31-year-old Nadal was born.
“They know the feeling of sliding. They know the feeling of playing,” Fabien Tiquet, a towering groundskeeper, says of the competitors.