“In sports things change very quickly“. This is one of the phrases most repeated by Rafael Nadal, who just 20 days ago looked far from playing tennis again and today faces the Masters 1000 in Rome (8th to 19th) with optimism, as the last stop before the great Roland Garros goal.
On April 10 he landed in Barcelona, along with his team, to see his doctor Ángel Ruiz Cotorro and get a change of scenery. “In Manacor I was losing to the guys from the Academy“, he said.
Nadal was tested on the ground of the RCT Barcelona and decided to participate in the Godó. He played two games with the handbrake on. He could not spend more than two hours on the court and had difficulty serving after his latest abdominal problem.
That’s why he arrived in Madrid with doubts about being competitive. “I will jump onto the court because it is my last time in Madrid, so I wouldn’t play at Roland Garros“, he warned a day before debuting with Darwin Blanch.
One game, two games, three games and Rafa went from less to more. He went from not being able to tolerate loads of more than 120 minutes to knocking down Pedro Cachín after 3 hours and 4 minutes. He also increased the speed of his first and second serves by more than 10 kilometers per hour..
Nadal fell to Jiri Lehecka by 7-5 and 6-4
Nadal left the Caja Mágica facilities late Wednesday morning. After falling with Jiri Lehecha and receiving the tribute of the tournament, with commemorative banners of his five trophies and another souvenir cup, he received the person closest to him in the locker room.
An hour later, he came to the conference room. She left several clear messages. The first was that his time at the Mutua Madrid Open relaunched him in his aspirations to fight again for the Roland Garros title.
I have taken steps forward in every way and now we have to consolidate these advances
Rafael Nadal
In just one week, the Spaniard went from ensuring that under current conditions he would never play on French soil to delaying the decision until the conclusion of Rome. “I have taken steps forward in every way and now we have to consolidate these advances. I arrived in Madrid with doubts in every way and I leave with fewer doubts. The first set with Lehecka was the best I played since I returned to compete. “It’s the day I was best positioned on the track,” he argued.
The champion of 22 majors has gone from seeing the glass half empty to seeing it half full. In fact, he did not even dare to rule out his participation in the final phase of the Davis Cup (November 19 to 24). “The Davis Cup is not 100% ruled out. Right now it is a utopia. I don’t want to say words that go against me“.
Nadal will head to Rome this weekend where he will make his debut on the courts of the Foro Italico next Thursday, May 9. “It’s another special tournament in my career. I’ve won ten times,” he recalls.
Since they are not seeded, they will have to play from the first round. It will be the final test before the last trip to Roland Garros: “I’ll say about Paris after Rome.“. In the Italian capital he aspires to reach the round figure of 100 quarterfinals in Masters 1000 category tournaments, something that no one has done before.
2024-05-01 11:10:21
#playing #tennis #feeling #competitive #Paris
