Eleven-time Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal, 2009 winner Roger Federer and sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas headline a busy Day 4 on Wednesday. Seventh seed Kei Nishikori and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are the first men’s match on Court Philippe-Chatrier in a blockbuster second-round clash. 

Two-time defending champion Nadal faces German qualifier Yannick Maden, who won the first Grand Slam main draw match of his career on Monday. The Spaniard improved to 87-2 record at Roland Garros after dropping six games in his first-round victory over another German qualifier in Yannick Hanfmann. Nadal is 14-0 in second-round matches at Roland Garros.

Third seed Federer takes on German “lucky loser” Oscar Otte, who is competing in the main draw of a Grand Slam for the first time. The Swiss star sprinted past Lorenzo Sonego in his opening round and has looked solid throughout the European clay swing, reaching the quarter-finals at both the Mutua Madrid Open and Internazionali BNL d’Italia. Federer has reached at least the fourth round in Paris in his past 11 appearances.

Seventh seed Nishikori and Tsonga clash for the first time in three years. Nishikori leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head 5-3, but the Frenchman won a five-set quarter-final classic in their only previous meeting at Roland Garros in 2015. The Japanese star has reached at least the fourth round in his past four appearances in Paris, while Tsonga is a two-time semi-finalist (2013 and 2015) at this event. Both men have won an ATP Tour title this year, with Nishikori prevailing in Brisbane (d. Medvedev) and Tsonga triumphing on home soil in Montpellier (d. Herbert)

“I was really in the match with beautiful intentions. I had played very well the first two sets, and then there was this stop because of the panel, and he came back with different intentions than what was happening during the first two sets,” recalled Tsonga of his 2015 clash with Nishikori. “The match was balanced. He came back, and I did a fantastic fifth set on the centre court with a fantastic crowd. So that’s the type of matches you enjoy, because everything is present. You have a great player in front of you. You play your best tennis. You have a crowd cheering you. It’s the best scenario you can have in Roland Garros.”

Tsitsipas squares off with Bolivian qualifier Hugo Dellien, who became the first Bolivian to win a Grand Slam match in 36 years with his victory on Sunday over Prajnesh Gunneswaran. The sixth seed’s outstanding European clay swing includes a stunning victory over Nadal en route to a runner-up finish in Madrid (l. to Djokovic), a semi-final showing in Rome and his fourth ATP Tour title at the Millennium Estoril Open (d. Cuevas). Tsitsipas’ win on Sunday over Maximillan Marterer made him the first player to reach 30 tour-level wins this season.

Other notable matches on Wednesday include No. 11 seed Marin Cilic of Croatia taking on Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. Cilic leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head 4-1 and has won their past three matches. Swiss Stan Wawrinka, the 2015 champion and No. 24 seed this year, plays Cristian Garin. The Chilean has lifted trophies this year at the BMW Open by FWU (d. Berrettini) and Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship (d. Ruud).

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ORDER OF PLAY – WEDNESDAY, 29 MAY 2019

Court Philippe-Chatrier start 11:00
WTA match
[7] Kei Nishikori vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
[3] Roger Federer vs [LL] Oscar Otte
WTA match

Court Suzanne Lenglen start 11:00
WTA match
[2] Rafael Nadal vs [Q] Yannick Maden
WTA match
Benoit Paire vs Pierre-Hugues Herbert

Court Simonne-Mathieu start 11:00
[6] Stefanos Tsitsipas vs [Q] Hugo Dellien
WTA match
[11] Marin Cilic vs Grigor Dimitrov
WTA match

Court No. 1 start 11:00
WTA match
Richard Gasquet vs Juan Ignacio Londero
[24] Stan Wawrinka vs Cristian Garin
WTA matchr

Court No. 14 start 11:00
WTA match
[27] David Goffin vs Miomir Kecmanovic
[WC] Nicolas Mahut vs Philipp Kohlschreiber

Court No. 7 start 11:00
[19] Guido Pella vs [WC] Corentin Moutet
Two WTA matches
[21] Alex de Minaur vs Pablo Carreno Busta

Court No. 6 start 11:00
WTA match
Filip Krajinovic vs Roberto Carballes Baena
[17] Diego Schwartzman vs Leonardo Mayer

Court No. 8 start 11:00
[WC] Mathias Bourgue / Jonathan Eyeserric vs Elliot Benchetrit / Geoffrey Blancaneaux
WTA match
Radu Albot / Malek Jaziri vs Mikhail Kukushkin / Joran Vliegen
[4] Oliver Marach / Mate Pavic vs Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan / Mischa Zverev

Court No. 9 start 11:00
Marcelo Demoliner / Divij Sharan vs Marton Fucsovics / Robert Lindstedt
[5] Nikola Mektic / Franko Skugor vs Pablo Cuevas / Feliciano Lopez
WTA match
[3] Juan Sebastian Cabal / Robert Farah vs Matthew Ebden / John-Patrick Smith

Court No. 10 start 11:00
Ricardas Berankis / Yoshihito Nishioka vs Mackenzie McDonald / Reilly Opelka
WTA match
John Millman / Jordan Thompson vs [WC] Enzo Couacaud / Tristan Lamasine

Court No. 11 start 11:00
Dusan Lajovic / Janko Tipsarevic vs Santiago Gonzalez / Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi
WTA match
Steve Johnson / Denis Kudla vs Daniel Evans / Cameron Norrie
WTA match

Court No. 12 start 11:00
WTA match
[31] Laslo Djere vs [WC] Alexei Popyrin
Marcel Granollers / Marc Lopez vs Denis Shapovalov / Fernando Verdasco

Court No. 13 start 11:00
Two WTA matches
[29] Matteo Berrettini vs Casper Ruud
Ugo Humbert / Adrian Mannarino vs Benjamin Bonzi / Antoine Hoang

World No. 2 Rafael Nadal, who advanced to the second round at Roland Garros Monday with a straight-sets victory against Yannick Hanfmann, has long been praised for his constant intensity and never-wavering work ethic.

But the 11-time Roland Garros champion said that more than a decade ago, after coming from two sets down against then-World No. 12 Ivan Ljubicic in the Madrid final — that tournament took place on indoor hard courts in October at the time — things changed for him following a foot injury that kept him out until February 2006.

“I was a hard worker when I was a kid. Very hard worker. Especially because I was able to play with very, very high intensity for a long time. But being honest, after the injury that I had in 2005 with my foot, my way to practise changed drastically,” Nadal said. “Until I had that problem on the foot in Madrid at the end of the season, in the tournament I won, what can I say, I couldn’t work. I had to change the way that I had to approach my tennis career in terms of the way that I practised, in terms of the way that I can, how many hours I can work or not.”

“I think the positive thing during all my career if I was able to practise two hours, three hours, one-hour-30, normally I did with highest intensity possible. And that’s all. What I did during all my career probably is go on court with the goal to improve something, and that makes me feel alive always and makes me feel passionate about the process of improving anything.”

In a way, the 32-year-old has taken the same approach to his results during this European spring clay-court season. Entering the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, Nadal had not lifted a trophy, his longest title drought to start a year since 2004, when he claimed his maiden ATP Tour trophy.

But he never allowed himself to be complacent, simply expecting his level to come together for this clay-court Grand Slam. All Nadal focused on was pushing to improve daily, as always.

“It’s very difficult to be convinced that you’re okay. I don’t know if many people are convinced about anything in this life,” Nadal said. “I think when you’re convinced about something, you’re very arrogant, because most of the time you can hope that something is going to happen, and have the desire for something to happen. But to be convinced, I’m almost convinced about nothing in this world.

“The only thing I was convinced about is that I wanted to work, to try and arrive at this event in a good shape, whatever it was. Whether it was Madrid, Rome, or here now.”

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Nadal returned to at or near his best in Rome, finally claiming an elusive triumph in 2019. He says that there was not a switch that turned on. 

“Feeling good is what helps,” Nadal said. “What happened in Rome is that I have been evolving continuously on clay. And in Rome it’s true that I was able to renew at a high level, better than Madrid. I wasn’t able to confirm my level in the semi-finals in Madrid, but you have some good moments and bad moments. And in Rome, I had almost only good moments.

“So we’re here now. It’s a completely different tournament. I will try to play well, fight well, and enjoy this tournament which is one of the most important one in my life.”

After his straightforward victory against Hanfmann, Nadal is not looking too far ahead. The Spaniard knows his form has improved steadily during this swing, but he is not turning his focus to a potential 12th Coupe des Mousquetaires yet. Nadal is solely focused on his next opponent, Yannick Maden.

“Every year is a new challenge,” Nadal said. “Today I was able to win the first challenge, and after tomorrow I gonna have the second challenge. That’s the only way.”