“I’ve had a different feeling for a week or so”
MADRID, 25 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish tennis player Rafa Nadal confessed that he still thinks that “there is a good chance that it will be his last Roland Garros” which will start on Monday, but he did not close the door on returning to the French ‘great’ next year despite being in 2024. that sounds like a farewell in every tournament played so far.
“I still think that there is a good chance that it will be my last Roland Garros, but I don’t want to force me to tell you: It is 100% my last Roland Garros,” he acknowledged this Saturday at a press conference before facing his nineteenth participation in Paris.
Nadal has not achieved the pace and the expected results on the clay tour, with some good sensations in Madrid being stopped in Rome, but the 14-time French Open champion scares even Alexander Zverev who will be his rival in his debut.
“Whether they have to pay me a tribute on the track or not, I sincerely believe that something natural will come out with the public and I don’t necessarily have to close the door to what may happen in the future, for the simple fact that I don’t “It’s necessary. If I don’t come back to play, I will come back to do what needs to be done, without having to play,” said the Spaniard.
The champion of 22 ‘greats’ celebrated being in Paris, after his absence last year, and in a position to compete. “I’m happy doing what I do, my body is evolving well, better than I expected a month and a half ago. I’m not training with too much pain,” he said.
“The limitations that I have felt week after week took away, in some way, the illusion of continuing because I did not see a future that made any sense, but this week I have few limitations. If that lasts over time, I can continue to be competitive I think,” he added.
Nadal also highlighted a good week of training at the Philippe Chatrier. “This tells me that I am not that far away. I am not a person who usually deceives myself, I am quite realistic and critical of myself, I am being competitive in all the training sessions against good people. That is the reality. It is the first week that I feel free to be able to play thinking about the ball and little else, I had been thinking for a long time about what movement I can make and that has weighed me down a lot,” he said.
“I have been feeling different for a week or so and that excites me to be able to compete and whatever may happen, I am aware that it is a utopia, but if I did not have a minimum of hope that I can really play well, I would not be here. The a priori time is insufficient, reality will be seen,” he concluded.