It’s a new page in the history of tennis that has written Rafael Nadal yesterday afternoon on the central court of Roland-Garros. Faced with the surprise of the tournament, the Norwegian Casper Ruud, the 36-year-old Spaniard offered himself his fourteenth Porte d’Auteuil title and enters a little more into the legend of his sport. Now 22 Grand Slam titles, two lengths ahead of his great rivals Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, the tennis player was able to let his joy and emotion burst at the end of a match he played in front of all his relatives in the stands.
A fortnight like no other for Rafael Nadal, who has long suffered from an incurable disease in his left foot which forces him to go through very specific treatments. Suffering from Müller-Weiss syndrome, the husband of Xisca Perello has been the victim of particularly intense pain since the start of the tournament. “I didn’t want to talk about it during the tournament out of respect for my opponents. Now I can”he said in an interview with Parisianbefore continuing in full transparency: “I will admit that I played in extreme conditions. I had nerve injections to cut the pain in my foot. I played with no feeling in my left foot. My doctor injected me with an anesthetic and I couldn’t feel anything.”.
I took the risk of injuring my ankle that I no longer felt at all
Desensitized to his left foot, Rafael Nadal was able to face all his opponents without the feeling that he was in pain, but the risk was particularly important for him. “I took the risk of injuring my ankle which I no longer felt at all. Why did I do it? Roland-Garros is important to me and these injections were the only way I had to play here”he reveals.
Will he be able to play Wimbledon in a few weeks?
A solution that has paid off for the tennis player, but a few weeks from Wimbledon, he assures us that he does not intend to continue the experience. “I can’t say clearly that I will be there, but I want to go (at Wimbledon). But if the treatment does not work, I will not do again what I did for Roland-Garros. I repeat, it was a ‘one shot'”he concludes.
Forced to play undercover and taking anti-inflammatories, Rafael Nadal finally won his bet, even if it turned out to be risky. Now champion, the Spanish sportsman is moving forward to the rest of his season with a lot of uncertainty, but the assurance of having once again marked the history of his sport.