Rafael Nadal will likely play at
Roland Garros but he won't be the number one seed as his seeding remains a big question, the biggest one according to
Patrick McEnroe.
Playing at a grand slam is just one part of a much larger story. Just playing at an event doesn't mean that you'll win even if your name is Rafael Nadal and you almost never lost in Paris. The Spaniard will likely play at the event without a single preparatory match on clay before the event and that's a huge issue.
Another issue is the fact that it's not clear what seed he'll be. Generally, the French tennis federation has followed rules and the rankings which means that Nadal will be lower than a 10th seed and it's not something Patrick McEnroe likes. He talked about it recently expressing that a lower seeding means that he can face Djokovic earlier like last year when they played in the quarter-finals.
McEnroe wasn't a fan of that:
"He's dropped down to like 15 in the rankings. That will be another interesting thing. The French Federation who makes the draws and the seedings, they've always gone by the rules, the rankings. When Rafa faced Djoker in the quarters, I didn't like that but they're not going to change."
He recently double down on that reacting on Twitter to the news of Alcaraz being the number one seed. To him Nadal's seeding is the biggest question heading into the event: