And so in this strangest of tennis seasons, the claycourt season that never was, suddenly is.
Less than 12 hours after the US Open ends, the first ball at the Masters 1000 event in Rome will be struck to begin a five-week clay swing in Europe which, hopefully, will include the French Open at Roland Garros.
This event was supposed to take place in May but we’re now in mid-September and temperatures are likely to be slightly higher than they would have been back in the spring. The forecast is for the mercury to reach over 30C this week which could speed up the notoriously slow courts a little.
Whether the switch in date will result in a change in tournament outcome remains to be seen.
This event has been dominated by Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic over the past 15 years. Between them, they’ve won the title 13 times, playing each other in the final on no fewer than seven occasions.
The two players who have managed to break that dominance – Andy Murray and Alex Zverev – won’t be here. Neither will Zverev’s fellow US Open finalist Dominic Thiem or the man he beat in the semis, Daniil Medvedev.
On paper, things look well set up for a return to the norm.
Yet these are strange times and the fact is that Nadal is coming in having not played a competitive match since February.
Yes, he is the greatest claycourt player of all time and has been practising on the clay for many weeks but you can’t replicate match play against the world’s best players at your academy in Mallorca. There’s at least some risk in backing him this week.
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