On the eve of the start of the 1,000 Masters in Paris , the last of the season, the Spanish Rafael Nadal said that finishing the year in the number one spot of the ATP is not an obsession, although he has options to do it for the fourth time in his career.

"I sleep just as well when I am number 1 than when I am number 2. Of course I prefer to be number 1, but I am very happy with the season I have done. The start was complicated. Before the last Monte Carlo tournament it was difficult to imagine that I would be in this position. I am proud of the year I have completed, "said the Spaniard.

Nadal will recover the number one position on November 4 whatever happens in Paris , because the Serbian Novak Djokovic, who occupies that position at the moment, was a finalist in the French capital and in London last season, so he has Many points to defend, unlike Spanish.

But the final position will be decided in the ATP Finals that will face the best eight of the year in London between November 10 and 17 .

Aware that the two remaining competitions are indoors, where he has achieved the least wins, Nadal said he will try to do something " special ."

Starting with Paris, one of the missing tournaments in his trophy room, he acknowledged that he is not doing well and that in the past he has faced difficulties, often physical.

But Nadal insisted that finishing as number 1 is not an obsession. "In the past I have already had to play one more game to be number 1. It was the case in 2017, that I had to come here to win a match. Now it is different. This year I have not gone to China. I have to look for priorities . In recent years my goal is not to be number 1, it is to organize my calendar so I can play as much time as possible. I am not going to play extra games to finish number 1, "he said.

In any case, Nadal said he does not change the head of the ranking by raising a Grand Slam, because "he wins on the track." He acknowledged that in 2008, when he reached number 1 for the first time in his career, "it was something very important, because he had been number two for four years and playing great tennis."

The Spaniard was "very satisfied" of his season, which recalled that he began in a complicated way, with physical problems that had been dragging from the previous year, when he could only play seven full tournaments.

"It is a year to be satisfied , with all that has been achieved, I have won two Grand Slam, I am in a very good ranking position, I have won other tournaments and I am here happy to enjoy a year that did not seem so good at the beginning as in the end it has been, "he said.

In the fight for number 1, this Saturday he trained with his rival for the position, Djokovic.

"This is a sport and making a game an abnormality or a rivalry taken out of context would be a mistake. I do not understand the sport like that and my main rivals either. That is why we live in an era in tennis that is lived quite normally all that it's happening, "he said.

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