Nadal: “I ask that I not be removed from every press conference, because if not, I end up believing it”

In other circumstances, it would be normal for Rafael Nadal to be competing on the New York asphalt around this time. This is not the case, but this time his absence is not due to injury, but to his own decision. After giving up Wimbledon and competing in the Paris Olympics, the tennis player finally opted to rule out this summer’s American Grand Slam. “I’m in a different era than I was three, four or five years ago. I’ve had a lot of physical problems and a major hip operation. I had set myself the goal of reaching the Olympics this season, and once they were over it was a matter of analyzing how I felt. I saw everything as very tight, five sets, hard court… It was a decision I had made,” the 38-year-old athlete said on Monday during an appearance on the program The Anthillfrom Antena 3.

Nadal appeared on the television set and spoke about his current condition, as well as the latest developments in the world of tennis; among them, a delicate matter: the double positive test of the number one, Jannik Sinner. If a few days ago it was his uncle Toni who defended in an article published in this newspaper the innocence of the Italian, 23 years old and who has been able to continue competing without any restrictions despite the case being detected in March, now it is he who speaks in his favour.

“I have a virtue or a defect, which is that I believe in the good faith of people. I know Sinner and I don’t think he wanted to dope,” he says. “Justice is justice, and I don’t think we have to like it only when it is resolved the way we think. I believe in the bodies that have to make decisions and that they make them based on what they believe is correct. I trust that if he has not been sanctioned it is because those who have had to judge this case [clostebol de por medio, sustancia prohibida] They have clearly seen that what was there was not punishable,” explains the champion of 22 majors, who this season, the one a priori It was going to be his last on the professional circuit, as he himself pointed out in May 2023 in Manacor, but he has not been able to have the desired continuity. It is reduced to 22 matches, distributed in seven tournaments.

The last of these was the Paris Games, where the veteran tennis player asked journalists not to ask him so often about a hypothetical retirement, after he lost against Novak Djokovic and also fell in the doubles event with Carlos Alcaraz. Asked by Pablo Motos about the subject, Nadal says he understands the interest, but reiterates that he prefers to mentally set aside the idea because, otherwise, he will end up internalizing it and for now, as he commented in his last interventions, he has not made a definitive decision. “Maybe yes, or maybe not…”, he hinted last May at Roland Garros.

Training and “other things”

“I understand that I’m retired. It’s been many years, I’ve gone through many physical problems and the question is normal, but there comes a time when I can’t live with retirement, because if not, you don’t finish trying.” [seguir jugando]. I have given myself some time to enjoy tennis after a year and a half off the court and that is what I am doing, enjoying the day to day. In the end, I wanted to give myself my time and I will make the decision when I have it clear, and I will tell you. I ask that they do not bring up the retirement in every press conference, because if not, I end up believing that I am going to retire,” explains the Mallorcan.

“My goals for the year are over now, I haven’t achieved what I would have liked to achieve. I was hoping to be healthier than I have been; the injury at the beginning of the year [el percance en la zona abdominal que se produjo en Brisbane, Australia, coincidiendo con su reaparición después de casi un año sin jugar] It was unexpected. Afterwards, I think I arrived at Roland Garros at the time I most wanted, but I had a bad draw. [cedió en la primera ronda, frente al alemán Alexander Zverev]”, he continues. Thus, he now admits that retirement “is an option”, but clarifies that “right now the objectives have been completed and I am taking my time. I am enjoying training and other things in life”.

As announced in the same statement in which he ruled out his participation in the US Open, Nadal will return from November 20 to 22 at the Laver Cup in Berlin. It is not known what his subsequent route will be, although his name is among the six players who will participate in a multi-million-dollar exhibition to be held in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) in October. The list is completed by Alcaraz, Djokovic, Sinner, the Russian Daniil Medvedev and the Dane Holger Rune. Today, the Spaniard, with 92 titles under his belt and a professional since 2001, is ranked 154th in the world. ranking.

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