The pandemic, which resulted in major sporting events to be postponed, had the tennis world waiting for seven months for return to grand slams. While fans binged on a tennis high in September with the recently concluded US Open, the delayed start of the French Open will continue to provide them with enough entertainment in the coming weeks.
This year’s edition of the French Open which kick started on September 21, 2020, has seen its share of top players opting to skip the grand slam, many others, however, have stepped up to participate in the big event. Defending French Open Champion Ashleigh Barty has decided to skip both the US Open and the French Open amid the corona virus scare.
Big gun and Roland Garros favourite Rafael Nadal decided to pass on playing at Flushing Meadows in New York to concentrate on clay court preparations. Simona Halep, the 2018 French Open Champion too followed in Nadal’s footsteps. However, the likes of Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic chose to play both majors.
Nadal, back at his favourite grand slam of the year, easily moved ahead to the third round by defeating Mackenzie McDonald in three sets 6-1, 6-0 and 6-3 in their second-round match of the 2020 French Open. Nadal, the ‘King of Clay’, wrapped up the match in just 1 hour and 42 minutes into the game.
The victory was so overwhelming that American fast food multinational Burger King seized the moment to congratulate Nadal, as well as publicize a clever pun on their competitor McDonalds.
The French Twitter account of Burger King posted a photo of the match results 6-1, 6-0, 6-3. Their marketing team wrote, “Rafael Nadal, you are probably still hungry,” hinting at him defeating McDoanld. The Twitter post has gone viral with over 15,000 retweets, 64,000 likes and has also garnered 2,300 comments from users.
.@RafaelNadal, you’re probably still hungry. pic.twitter.com/0sfnZNtxmg
— Burger King France (@BurgerKingFR) September 30, 2020
Rafael Nadal is seeking his 13th title in Paris and 20th Grand Slam. He is just shy of one grand slam victory that will place him on the same pedestal as Roger Federer's men's record of 20 grand slam singles titles.