Rafael Nadal World number 3 is aiming to get back to his best at this week’s Barcelona Open, a tournament he has won 11 times.
A few days after the quarter-final defeat in the Monte Carlo Open season 2021 to Andrey Rublev, the Spanish tennis star has spent the majority of his time on the training pitch. Playing against Rublev in Monte Carlo, he committed seven double fouls and won only 42 per cent of points on his second serve.
“I haven’t played many tournaments in the last few months or the last one season,” admitted Nadal, who recorded 61-4 at the Barcelona Open.
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“Competing is always a difficult thing. The Monte Carlo Open is an important challenge, where I have had a lot of positives during the tournament and training sessions. I lost in the quarter-finals, unable to compete at the level I needed. Here, I have another opportunity.”
“I will go through week after week. I have an important month ending with the French Open. Every game and every week is important for now. That’s how I saw it. I hope the negative results don’t affect me too much and I aim to stay positive every day to get to where I want to be.”
Regarding the French Open, Nadal added, “I want to win tournaments before the French Open, because I love winning tournaments.” It’s certainly easier to win the French Open with confidence after winning the tournament before playing at Roland Garros, as I have done a lot in my career.
“But the key is to put myself in a position to stay competitive in every tournament. I didn’t compete much in the last one season, but even if I feel ready for the Monte Carlo Open, the matches I have played can happen. I will continue to train hard for my matches in Barcelona and every day for Madrid, Roma and Roland Garros.”
Rafael Nadal, who had time to reflect on the loss at the Monte Carlo Open, admitted, “If you train well every day, when you have a match, and do something bad, it is quite a shock. I know what happened.”
“Losing, even if it is unpleasant or positive, puts a person in his position. I analyze the details of each game and I know that I have to improve on certain things. It was a strange match. You can lose against a great player like Ruble, but I did the wrong thing and it surprised me.”
“Other times, when you don’t feel so good, playing badly seems logical. That’s not what happened in Monte Carlo, it happened. You have to understand what went wrong in order to avoid making the same mistake again. After any defeat, you will go through a few days with doubts on your mind. The key is to recover and that’s what I do. I’ve been training with the right attitude to get the great feeling of competing here.”
