Tennis is a numbers game and Rafael Nadal says digits don't lie.

After the 13-time Roland Garros champion beat Aussie Alexei Popyrin today to raise his French Open record to 101-2, Nadal was asked his thoughts on the tournament seedings.

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If ever there was a time for a Grand Slam to deviate from the ATP rankings and apply surface strength to seedings surely it was this spring in Paris, right? After all, Nadal dismissed world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the 2020 final to win his 13th Roland Garros title without dropping a set, owns a 126-2 record in best-of-five-set clay matches and stretched his French Open winning streak to 29 matches today.

Surely, Nadal should have been seeded higher than second-ranked Daniil Medvedev, who was winless in four prior Paris appearances before beating Alexander Bublik in his opener, right?



Wrong, says the third-seeded Spaniard.

"That's how the ranking works. I mean, there is no one sport that is more fair than tennis on that," Nadal said. "There is a ranking. The seededs are made with the ranking that you had during the last year, during a year. So that's how it is.

"I mean, you need to find a way to do it fair, and probably that's a good way to avoid any discussion or -- you know, that's it, no? Fair enough, I am the third, Medvedev is the second, Novak is the first. No problem with that."



While Nadal has no issues, the seedings clearly impact the draw as Nadal and rival Djokovic are on course for a semifinal clash rather than squaring off in the final with a historic Slam title on the line.

Given the Slams have the authority to deviate from the rankings if they choose, should Roland Garros have elevated the king of clay to the second seed to prevent the Big 3 winding up in the same top half of the draw?

Nadal said it's all about match play now.

"I am here to try my best, and when I am the third, you know that you're gonna have the chance to be in the same draw, part of the draw than the No. 1 or the No. 2," Nadal said. "So this time was with the part of the draws of the No. 1. But still remain a lot for me to face that match, semifinals.

"I just won my first match, something that I'm happy with and I'm focused on try to go for the second one. That's it." 

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