Two years after his last participation, Rafael Nadal returns to the Caja Mágica in Madrid. He does it in anomalous circumstances, outside the pools to win the title and in search of the necessary filming to be able to complete the tour on clay in Paris. It won’t be easy: “Right now, I wouldn’t play at Roland Garros.” The 37-year-old Mallorcan tennis player has only been able to play five matches this season and the physical progress experienced in Barcelona has been followed by a few days of ups and downs in the Caja Mágica. Serious face, thoughtful tone. The champion of 22 majors, then, does not have it all with him, although his connection with the Madrid tournament moves him to a last parade through the San Fermín center.
“I face it with enthusiasm, basically. It’s always special for me to play here, because the support I’ve received I probably haven’t had anywhere else in the world. I look forward to playing here one more time. The week has been good in some ways, and not in others. I don’t think he’s ready to play at 100%, but he’s ready to go out and play tomorrow (against the young Darwin Blanch, 16 years old and 1,028th in the world), and for me that’s important. Being able to play one last time here means a lot,” he said this Wednesday, during the day before its premiere, in a room full of reporters. And when asked repeatedly about whether it was the last time he would play in front of the Madrid public, he answered melancholy: “Yes, I think so.”
Regarding his evolution, he cast doubt on his presence at Roland Garros, starting on May 26. Unlike the more optimistic speech given last week in Barcelona, this time Nadal was more forceful: reality is what it is, very complicated from a physical point of view. His body and his sensations come and go, and he does not quite find the necessary point to compete at a higher level than the one offered recently in Barcelona, where he lost in the second appearance – against Alex de Miñaur, after having defeated Flavio Cobolli—and it was diluted when the game was delayed. If at Godó he claimed to have taken “a step forward”, the current moment is different. Today, he doesn’t see it clearly. The discomfort persists and the horizon is unknown.
“The ideal thing would be to be able to play and not have many limitations. Whatever happens (in reference to the results), I don’t care. The sensations of the week have not been perfect. Maybe I wouldn’t go out to play tomorrow, but it’s Madrid and many things are mixed on an emotional level that lead me to go out and play. That doesn’t mean I’m giving up anything in the coming weeks. It is not an upward process in a straight line,” said the tennis player, who will turn 38 on June 3. “The goal is to finish the tournament alive, in terms of physicality,” he said during the English turn.
He says that the problems that prevented him from serving during the last three months have eased, and that he can now execute the maneuver better, but at the same time he admits that he is not able to play “free enough” and that he cannot compete according to his nature. “I am not prepared for certain things,” he acknowledged. And he resolved: “I don’t know what will happen in the next three weeks; I am going to do everything I can to be able to play in Paris and if it is possible, it is possible; If not, I’m not going to play as I am today; I’m only going to go out and play if I feel capable enough to compete. I will try to give myself the maximum opportunities to do so and if not, maximum satisfaction. The world does not end with Roland Garros. It doesn’t mean that if I don’t play, everything will end there. But I’m not going to do anything more than what I feel capable of doing at the moment.”
You can follow The USA Print in Facebook and xor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
