By Chris Oddo | Thursday August 25, 2016

During a conference call to promote ESPN’s first to last ball coverage of the U.S. Open, Chris Evert, Mary Joe Fernandez and Cliff Drysdale cautioned that it’s far too early to count Rafael Nadal out of the Grand Slam title hunt.

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The Spaniard, who turned 30 in June, returned from a 73-day hiatus to earn a Gold medal in men’s doubles at the Rio Games, but it was his electrifying performance in the men’s singles, where he reached the semifinals, that portends brighter days may soon be ahead for the 14-time major champion.

“I saw him in Rio and he looked really good,” Fernandez said. “He looked very hungry. I felt like his forehand was better than it had been.”

Nadal logged over 23 hours of court time at the Olympics. That was good enough to erase all doubts that his previously injured left wrist wouldn’t hold up. But the grueling schedule did eventually catch up with him in singles.

“I do feel he played so much in the first few days that it caught up to him towards the end,” Fernandez said. “He had to play del Potro and Nishikori back to back after having the Gold Medal in doubles, and I think that took a lot out of him, and you saw the effects in Cincinnati. But I have no doubt that he’s going to be a huge challenger. I still think he’s going to win another French Open. I still think he’s that motivated and he’s that good. He’s seeded four [at the U.S. Open], so that could work in his favor with the draw, and nobody likes to play Rafa. Everybody knows that to play Rafa, they know they have to play their very best to beat him.”

Six-time U.S. Open champion Evert agrees. She thinks Nadal is in a good place—especially compared to where he was when he was forced to pull out of this year’s French Open with a badly injured left wrist tendon.

“Yeah, after watching him play, if he’s as eager as he seemed to look on the court, he’s only going to get better,” Evert said. “And he knows the little tweaks he can make in his game, which is from rust and from maybe not hitting with enough confidence. He knows what he needs to do, and I think if he gets a little more aggressive, and makes a few more little adjustments and really wants it badly enough, he’s going to go nowhere but up. So I think he’s still in the game.”

Cliff Drysdale joked about a running bet with his ESPN colleague Chris Fowler, saying that he was a little worried about whether or not Nadal would get the elusive 15th major title.

“I have a fine dining dinner bet with Chris Fowler that he’s going to win another major,” Drysdale joked, “and I’m beginning to lose confidence that I’m going to win the bet.”

But Drysdale was also impressed with Nadal’s form and warns that you can never count the great champion out. “With that said, I agree with everything Mary Joe said and I think that I would put him in my book as a No. 3 or 4 favorite to win the title in New York.” He added, emphatically: “We have not given up on Rafa.”