Rafa Nadal, of course, was the main protagonist of the press conference held this Monday at the hotel in Fuengirola where the Spanish team stays Davis Cup that starting Tuesday the finals of the tournament will be held in Malaga. In a room packed with journalists from numerous countries, all the members of the Spanish team appeared, but all attention was focused on the legendary Mallorcan tennis player, who faces the last sporting event before his announced retirement.
«I feel good, I’ve been thinking about it for a long time. “I tried to give myself a chance and I decided over time,” Nadal recalled. I’m enjoying the week, I’m not paying much attention to the withdrawal thing. It will be a big change in my life after this week. “I am very excited and happy to be here.”
And, true to his character until the last day, he warned: «I am not here to retire. I’m here to help the team win. It’s my last week in a team competition and the most important thing is to help the team. The emotions will come to the end. Before and after I will be focused on what I have to do.
One of the doubts they have about the tournament is whether Rafa is able to compete with guarantees. If he will play a game. Nadal is clear: «That is a question for the captain, not for me. I try to work as hard as I can, like this for the last month and a half. By not competing very often it is a little more difficult to maintain the level constantly. The improvement is there every day. We have a great team“All of these players have had a great season on the circuit, so it is the captain’s job to decide what is best for the team.”
Lastly, the 22-time ‘Grand Slam’ winner He spoke about his struggle with injuries throughout his career, with “several episodes that have complicated” his activity. «But I have been overcoming them. The one from Australia made me have hip surgery, and from then on I feel that I have not been able to compete with the freedom that I have competed on most occasions,” he said.
«For all the problems that have arisen, we have been looking for solutions or windows that allowed me to play, coexist with them and carry out my activity with relative normality. But With this last injury I feel that I cannot develop it because it doesn’t give me a window for training and competitions, and that adds to that, all the other annoyances that haven’t gone away. That has meant that this has to end. But it is something logical, it responds to the normal wear and tear of a long career,” said Nadal.
Alcaraz: “I still have a bit of a cold”
For his part, Carlos Alcaraz expressed that, although he still has “a little cold”, he has already “forgotten it” and is “almost one hundred percent” before starting the Davis Cup Finals in Malaga with the Spanish team, at the same time. time that he confessed to feeling “lucky” to be able to experience this last week of Rafa Nadal as a professional with the Balearic Islands.
«I still have a bit of a cold, in recent days I have been able to train practically normally. I have already forgotten about the cold and I am almost one hundred percent or much better than in Turin. Yesterday I trained at a very high intensity“Let’s see how I feel today,” said the Murcian at the press conference.
Spain debuts this Tuesday (5:00 p.m.) against Netherlands at the beginning of his final path to the salad bowl, and he does so with an Alcaraz who arrives with physical doubts due to a cold that prevented him from performing at his best in the ATP Finals last week.
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