Vaillant, head of court maintenance at Roland-Garros on Nadal: "He's very attentive to detail"
With Rafael Nadal about to call time on his career, L'Équipe spoke to a number of people who worked with him at Roland-Garros.
Philippe Vaillant, in charge of court maintenance at Roland-Garros, had some interesting things to say: "I sometimes talk to him during his training sessions, especially in the early days.
We call him 'the boss' between us, so we like to know what he thinks of our courts. As soon as we make a small change on the ground, he feels it.
He's very attentive to detail, more so than most players. If he notices something, he'll ask what happened.
In 2014, we changed the limestone surface at Le Chatrier and, when he arrived, he immediately noticed that it wasn't the same clay. But when you look at it, you can't see anything at all.
After three days, he'd found his feet. Once, he told us that there were a few too many crushed bricks and a few false bounces.
He notices everything."
