Rafa Nadal: "I have no fear of my life after tennis"

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Even after a few hours of the interview he gave to several Spanish media, at the exit of the Intercontinental Hotel, next to the Opera Square, in the heart of Paris, there are still young people with their mobile phones at the ready, waiting to approach the already 14 times winner of Roland Garros.

expresses himself naturally.

He wants to keep playing.

And he's going to go out of his way to try.

How was the night? Well, physically I'm fine.

I have been fine during the two weeks, even after long matches, surprisingly, because with no training before the tournament, I have played games of a few hours against Felix [Auger-Aliassime] or against Novak [Djokovic].

Against Zverev we were also three hours.

The following days I woke up well on a physical level, for this stage of my career.

Of course, when I wake up my foot hurts, after two and a half weeks taking painkillers and anti-inflammatories every six hours. How do you assess the tournament? At the tennis level it has an important value, but I always value the subject even a little more mental.

After what happened to me in Indian Wells and how little I've been able to train, I knew I was going to be able to play, because with a numb foot you can play,

but having the ability to put all this aside and be able to compete well knew that it was not going to be easy. Djokovic's match is for me one of the best I have seen in his career.

Do you think the same?

What did you try to change after losing to him a year ago in the semis? The 2020 final was perhaps better.

I was playing very well, but I couldn't keep it up midway through the second set because I lacked baggage.

If it had been given to me having played a normal clay season, it would have been easier for me to maintain the level.

Intensity is a habit.

But it has the added value that in the third I had the ability to be aggressive again.

There is a lot of talk about tactics, but we know each other very well.

In the end, it can be applied when one plays well.

At night, when the ball does not jump as much as during the day,

The down the line shot was very important to me.

I had to throw my

parallel, because if not he gets into the track very well. Fourteen titles.

Nobody is going to overcome it. Yes, it is very difficult for all the circumstances that have to be given for this to happen.

But if I did it, it can be repeated. After all the things he has to do to play, isn't the future life tempting him without competition?

How do you imagine it? Just as I have lived it for many months in my career in which I have had to be away from the competition.

I have always been happy outside of tennis.

I don't lose sleep or have any fear of my life after tennis.

And I have always had many things that make me happy beyond tennis.

I have what I have in my foot.

I think that at the level of the foot, if I want to I will be able to get rid of the pain in a quite definitive way, what happens is that I would have to have surgery and fix my foot,

and thus he could not continue playing. What expectations does his doctor give him with the treatment he is going to try? If we were not optimistic we would not do it, but of course, I do not know.

Let's see what happens.

You have to do a pulsatile radiofrequency on the nerve to try to get the feeling I have when I play with my foot asleep.

If it works, it's going to take some of the sensitivity off the top of my foot, but there's also one good thing: distance blocking has proven that I can play.

If this treatment works, it touches my nerve and that sensation of pain disappears, the problem is not solved, but I could continue playing. I had never won Australia and Roland Garros in the same year.

Is it crazy to think about taking the big four this season? Yes, it is.

Even being perfect it seems crazy to me.

It's something no one has done since Rod Laver.

Novak was the one who came closest last year.

I don't even consider it.

More than winning the Grand Slam, he would sign to be able to play the big four. Is the puncture very painful? It hurts, yes.

It is a needle and in some places it hurts more and in others less.

It's bearable, because otherwise we wouldn't have done it, but doing this every day twenty minutes before going out on the track is not pleasant.

I am used to it, I have confidence in the people around me. He won the first title here in 2005 and he does it again 17 years later. I was the first one who thought that he would not have a career as long as the one I am having.

Within all the things that have been happening, the illusion to continue has always been maintained.

I have the same team all my life.

Toni [Nadal] is gone, but I talk to him daily.

My base is always to have people very close to me.

Marc [López] was not in the team before, but we trained many times together.

At the training level, it helps me with specific things. Tennis has changed a lot in all this time. Yes, of course, we have to adapt to things.

Before, tennis was more typical of clay courts, more like Casper's [Ruud], he would say.

Today there are fewer and fewer who play like this.

I don't even do it.

We all evolve.

I myself have been adapting my racket to have more power.

In fact, at the beginning of the year I changed the strings.

I was always playing with 1.35 and now I play with 1.30.

I put more lead in the head to try and get a little more power.

Something already out of the ordinary is to have changed to the old racket two days before playing this tournament.

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