Sensitive loss for the Navy at Roland Garros (from May 22 to June 5). Roberto Bautista, 19th in the world and fourth best Spaniard in the ATP ranking, will not be in Paris. The information, announced last night by RNE’s ‘Radiogaceta de los Deportes’, has been confirmed today, when the name of the Castellón resident has disappeared from the entry list of the tournament. The reasons behind the decision, the discomfort in the right wrist that has been dragging for weeks. His place, yes, could be occupied by another national tennis player. The Valencian Bernabé Zapata Miralles, 133rd and contesting the third qualifying round for the Grand Slam, would be the player benefited, the lucky loser that would enter the main drawwhich is raffled this afternoon, starting at 19:00.
A very sensitive absence, both because of the potential that Spanish tennis will miss and because of Bautista’s career, that he wore without missing a major since Wimbeldon 2018, when he had to give up the tournament also due to injury, after slipping in the semifinals when he won 3-2 against Croatian Borna Coric. This time, as anticipated, his withdrawal is due to problems with his right wrist, the same ones that separated him from Monte Carlo, Barcelona or Rome. It was expected that he would reappear in the Godó, but, finally, he did so in Madrid, the only tournament on clay that he has been able to play this season. In the capital, despite dragging the inconvenience, he beat the American Jenson Brooksby, but could not pass the second round, succumbing to the British Daniel Evans.