RAFAEL NADAL may be rolling back the years at Roland Garros, but a chronic foot injury means the king of clay cannot look beyond this year’s French Open.
Nadal beat his arch-rival, the world number one and defending champion Novak Djokovic, in a late-night classic on Tuesday.
His four-set victory was built on the power, energy and physicality of a man about to turn 26, not 36 as Nadal will on Friday – the day of his semi-final against Alexander Zverev.
MAKE IT 30-29 🔥🔥🔥@RafaelNadal wins the battle against the World No. 1 @DjokerNole 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 and is now into the #RolandGarros semi-final! 🙌@rolandgarros pic.twitter.com/tZ5oDHu67U
— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 31, 2022
But Nadal has readily admitted all fortnight that his injury issues mean that every tournament, or even every match, he plays in could be his last.
“Yes, I can’t say another thing, no? I am very clear about that, no?” said the Spaniard, a 13-time winner in Paris.
“I’m going to be playing this tournament because we are doing the things to be ready to play this tournament, but I don’t know what’s going to happen after here.
“I mean, I have what I have there in the foot, so if we are not able to find an improvement or a small solution on that, then it’s becoming super difficult for me. So that’s it.
“I am just enjoying every day that I have the chance to be here, and without thinking much about what can happen in the future.
“Of course I’m going to keep fighting to find a solution for that, but for the moment we haven’t. So just to give myself a chance to play another semi-final here in Roland Garros (provides) a lot of energy for me.”
Nadal looked a shadow of the player who sent Djokovic packing 6-2 4-6 6-2 7-6 (4) when, just three weeks ago in Rome, he limped through a defeat to Denis Shapovalov.
But Nadal and his doctor are managing the injury in a bid to nurse him towards a 14th title.
He added: “I said in Rome I’m going toRa have my doctor here with me. Having the doctor here you can do things that help, no?
“So it’s not the moment to talk about that. I said that we are going to talk about that after the tournament, when my tournament finishes.
“But, yeah, I am putting everything that I have to try to play this tournament (in) the best condition possible. I don’t know what can happen after, honestly, but here I think I’m going to be fine.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel