“You never know what to expect” John McEnroe regards Rafael Nadal as the favorite to end the year as World No 1
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John McEnroe and Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal, the former world number one has been on a roll with spectacular performances this year winning the Australian Open followed by the title win at the French Open which took his tally to 22 singles Grand Slam titles, the most number of singles Grand Slam titles by a player in the Open era. He was looking ahead to achieving a calendar Grand Slam at the 2022 Wimbledon Championship but he got a major setback when he suffered an abdominal injury in the quarter-final match against Taylor Fritz which led to his withdrawal from the tournament handing his semi-final opponent Nick Kyrgios a walkover to the finals for his maiden final appearance.
The Spaniard, one of the greatest players of all time, played his first match at the Cincinnati Open after coming out of his injury which kept him out for some time. His much-anticipated comeback was shattered as he lost to the eventual winner Borna Coric in the second round as the Croatian out-performed him in all areas to win the match. The 36-year-old Nadal will be looking for another title win at the US Open 2022 and hopefully looking for his 23rd Grand Slam title. Rafael Nadal is in the lead with his 22 singles major titles win followed by Novak Djokovic‘s 21 and Roger Federer‘s 20.
“He is in a great position to do that” John McEnroe hopeful to see Rafael Nadal ending the year as World No 1
John McEnroe, the former American tennis legend, in an interview, expressed his desire to see the Spaniard legend ending the year as World No 1 in the ATP rankings and it would be shocking if that doesn’t happen. He said, “I do think he is the favorite, absolutely. I would be surprised if he doesn’t finish as world No. 1. Especially, as it turned out, it would have helped if there were points at Wimbledon for him. But it hurt people like Novak and other players that had done well the previous year.”
The American also revealed that Nadal performs his best under pressure and can go to achieve the unthinkable when it is least expected of him. He added “He is in a great position to do that, which is amazing considering that he didn’t play for six months before that. Rafa does things that you can’t believe that it happened, which is why he’s considered the best and up there with the all-time greatest players – you never know what to expect. You know that what he cares about is the US Open. With all due respect to Cincinnati, he wasn’t too worried about that so at least he got on the court again.“
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