(Turin) Rafael Nadal does not win, but Rafael Nadal plays and feels capable of stringing together matches and tournaments, so it was with greed that he turned to the 2023 season on Tuesday after his second defeat in as many matches at the ATP Finals.
The 36-year-old Spaniard, who has just one match left in the Finals, has very slim hopes of reaching the semi-finals, and is already looking towards next year.
“I have to accept that my 2023 season starts tomorrow. The only thing I can do is work to give myself a chance to play well in 2023 […] I don’t think I forgot how to play tennis, or how to be mentally strong. I just need to get back the confidence I need to play at the level I want to play,” he said.
Will he be able to repeat the feat of this season where, after six months off due to foot pain in 2021, he returned in 2022 and won the first two Majors of the year (the Internationals of Australia and Roland-Garros, bringing the record for Grand Slam titles to 22) and had reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon where an abdominal tear had forced him to forfeit before a tantalizing duel against Nick Kyrgios?
“Ready to Die”
“I don’t know if I will find this level, but on the other hand I have no doubt that I am ready to die to try”, promises the Majorcan whose will is certainly the fundamental trait of character.
“What will happen in Australia? I don’t know, there is a month and a half left to work hard, stay positive, accept the challenge and accept that we must certainly suffer a little more, ”he lists.
As in 2021, the second part of 2022 was truncated in particular by his abdominal injury and, on the private side, the birth of his first child.
He also continues to emphasize these “very difficult months” he has gone through since Wimbledon.
As a result, he takes a rather positive look at the past few weeks, considering the results “disappointing”, but “logical”.
“The simple fact of being there (at the Finals) is positive […] Being able to play two tournaments in three weeks is positive, it’s been a while since I’ve done it, ”he notes.
In Turin, he also had the possibility of becoming world No.1 again, for the first time since February 3, 2020 and of ending the season at the top of the hierarchy for the sixth time, like Pete Sampras. Only Novak Djokovic did better (7).
” Never again ”
This would have required winning the tournament, which he himself ruled out on Tuesday after his loss to Auger-Aliassime, two days after having already lost to Taylor Fritz. Only an improbable combination of circumstances allowed him at that time to qualify for the semi-finals.
But this failed act absolutely does not enter into his considerations.
“Finishing the N.1 season would have been an achievement, especially at this stage of my career. But I have already said it, becoming N.1 will never again be a goal for me, ”he decides.
“If it happens, because the situation wants it, fantastic! But my body, my age, my personal situation no longer allow me to make it a goal, ”he insists.
In 2022, his body, so traumatized by injuries for years, only allowed him to play twelve tournaments, including the Masters, and to win four of them.
In comparison, his compatriot Carlos Alcaraz, who at 19 became the youngest world No.1 since the ATP rankings existed (1973) by winning the United States Open in September, played 17 and won five, but only one. Major.
“It’s difficult to fight against young people who are very strong and capable of playing as many tournaments as they want. It is normal that they are in the position where I myself was fifteen years ago,” notes Nadal.
He was in the position of those young wolves fifteen years ago. Will they still be in a position to fight for Grand Slam titles and the place of N.1 in fifteen years?