Rafael Nadal reveals he was "scared to get injured" in RG 2020's heavier conditions, says he's more comfortable playing under the sun

On Tuesday, Rafael Nadal started his campaign for an unprecedented 14th Roland Garros title in fine fashion. The Spaniard beat Alexei Popyrin in straight sets to advance to the second round, which improved his record at the French Open to a staggering 101-2.

The young Aussie kept pace with Rafael Nadal in the first six games of the opening-round encounter. But Nadal then reeled off six games on the trot to establish control over the match. The 20-time Slam champion used his heavy topspin forehand to run circles around his 6'5" opponent, taking the first two sets with relative ease.

The Australian eventually hit back in the third set and broke Rafael Nadal to go 5-2 up. But he missed some easy put-aways while serving for the set and got broken back. The 34-year-old didn't need a second invitation as he eventually won the third set tiebreaker to close out the match in straight sets.

Speaking to the media after his first-round win, Rafael Nadal expressed satisfaction with the conditions at Roland Garros. Normally held in summer, the tournament had to be postponed to the Parisian autumn last year due to COVID-19. And that seasonal difference affected play in 2020, which Nadal touched upon in his latest comments.

Colder conditions, moisture and wind made it tougher for players to hit through their opponents. Rafael Nadal, who prefers warm weather, claimed that while last year's conditions were still good for him since he ended up winning the title, it wasn't "ideal" to play in such low temperatures.

"Of course, the conditions at last year's tournament for me was good, because I won," Nadal said. "That's the thing no, and another thing is that it's not an ideal situation to play tennis with three or four degrees so..."

Rafael Nadal also disclosed during the press conference that he was concerned about getting injured due to the conditions being different last year.

"I feel I was a little bit scared to get injured, no?" Nadal added. "But that's past, this year will come back to normal dates, so warm conditions for everybody. More comfortable to play in these conditions than the other ones. That's what we're used to playing here in Roland Garros and I'm happy for that."

"You face a player that has decided to go for every shot, so you're in trouble" - Rafael Nadal on Alexei Popyrin

Rafael Nadal shakes hands with Alexei Popyrin after their first round match

During the interview, the southpaw from Mallorca also lauded the punishing serve and big groundstrokes of his first-round opponent. Rafael Nadal remarked that Alexei Popyrin could become a really dangerous player if he put in the hard yards.

"With this kind of serve, with these shots from the baseline you have everything to become a top player," Nadal said. "Then you really want to do it, you need to do it. If he wanna do it, of course he'll have his chances. A lot of very difficult things in his game, so he has everything to become an even (more) fantastic player."

Rafael Nadal was later asked to draw parallels between facing a set point and a match point, to which he gave a rather interesting answer. The Spaniard explained that players always have the next set to look forward to when facing a set point, but that the prospect of facing a match point is much bleaker.

"No, even when I'm losing first set I'm in good position to try to win the match," Nadal said. "At match point it is a different story. If you lose the point, you're over (laughs). You are back home. Here if you lose the set, we are playing best of 5. And I know I gonna be there fighting for every single point, so of course I don't want to lose the set at all."

The World No. 3 went on to admit that he struggled to cope with Popyrin's serve and groundstrokes. But in the same breath, he insisted that it is quite difficult to maintain such form over five sets on clay.

"But yeah, that's part of the game," Nadal went on. "You face a player that has decided to go for every shot, so you're in trouble. If he is having success like he did with his serve, then it's difficult to have breaks and then you're in a tricky position. That's it. But here on clay, the matches are long and difficult to hold that kind of level for such a long time, playing with such a risk."