CAJA MAGICA, Madrid — The day before Rafael Nadal’s next tennis match, in a season that has become both a farewell tour and a battle to secure a final appearance at the French Open, the Spanish champion said he won’t take the court at Roland Garros if he feels the same way in a month as he does right now.
For anyone who watched the 14-time French Open champion play last week in Barcelona, it was sobering.
Nadal showed he still has a lot to do in his two matches in Barcelona, especially when serving. But there were also flashes of genius and improvisation that mark Nadal: the courage, the fight, the raw power, even on his back heel and in other positions where no player has power business generator. And it got the tennis world thinking that Nadal, even with his broken knees, chronically damaged foot, surgically repaired and injured hip area and sore abdominal muscles, might still have one last Roland Garros hurray in him .
And then there was a news conference Wednesday in Madrid, the Spanish capital, before his first-round match against a 16-year-old American wildcard named Darwin Blanch.
“If I arrive in Paris as I feel today, I will not play,” Nadal told a packed house at Caja Magica during the Spanish portion of his press conference. “I will play Roland Garros if I feel competitive. If I can play, I play. If I can’t play, I can’t. It won’t be the end of the world or the end of my career. I still have goals after Roland Garros, like the Olympics.
Minutes later, Nadal was asked if he had a different goal for the Madrid Open than he did for last week’s Barcelona Open, which he appeared to be using as an information-gathering mission after three months without play competitive matches. There he gave in when he lost a set and a break in his second match, against Australian Alex de Minaur, playing within himself in the hope that later, somewhere, he might play outside from him.
“The goal is to be on the pitch and enjoy it as long as possible,” he said. “Try to finish the tournament alive in terms of body issues and enjoy the fact that I will be able to compete once again, and at home in Madrid.”
The idea of jumping in and finding a way to last deep into this tournament is not on his mind.
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Over the past two decades, due to injuries and defeats, no one could accuse Nadal of lacking the desperation to win every time he steps onto a tennis court. His competitive fire has been his trademark as much as his forehand.
But being competitive has become a complicated matter. He has played just five tour matches since suffering tears around his left hip at the Australian Open in January 2023, requiring career-threatening surgery five months later .
When athletes talk about competition, they often talk about their mindset, the willpower and focus it takes to stay in the fight.
For Nadal, competing also means being able to let his body go with a freedom that allows him to take a step forward without fearing the consequences and feeling little pain. Before, it was about winning. Now it’s about survival.
Therein lies the Catch-22 that rules his life right now.
He always wants to be the guy who wins a tournament one day and goes to the airport on crutches the next. But there’s a difference between hitting a body near its peak and kicking it when it’s already down. At almost 38, after two decades of the most grueling and physical tennis career, his body is telling him that what he wants may no longer be possible.
What does it mean for the Rafael Nadal of today to “compete”, if it does not mean living up to the standards of the Rafael Nadal of the last two decades – the one that he and the watching world see and remember ? at the same time?
If competing doesn’t mean competing, is there any other reason for today’s Nadal to step onto a tennis court?
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The Spaniard insists the reasons remain.
A few weeks ago, he wasn’t sure if he would ever play another professional tennis match. He did it twice last week. It will start again tomorrow (Thursday).
He’s back in his element, hitting balls with the best players in the world – and sometimes he even feels like their equal. He’s far from perfect, he knows that, but he can still enjoy the game. From an emotional standpoint, he said, it’s very important that he’s on the field Thursday — that he’s saying goodbye to his hometown tournament, rather than in a social media post .
And then, beyond all that, or perhaps before, there is the other thing: this possibility, however remote it may be, of love at first sight, of waking up one morning, preferably before the start of the French Open, the last week of May, and I feel, well, good.
If that happens one way or another, he needs to prepare for it.
“Things can change very quickly,” he said, as he often does about this sport and most others.
He will not be ready to capitalize on this change from his yacht in Majorca.
The only thing he knows how to do is put himself in the best possible position if the miracle happens.
“I’m here, I’m giving myself a chance,” he said.
And who can blame him?
(Top photo: José Oliva/Europa Press via Getty Images)