Rafael Nadal still unsure about Australian Open 2022, says Abu Dhabi was a “overall positive”


Rafael Nadal still unsure about Australian Open 2022, says Abu Dhabi was a “overall positive”

Rafael Nadal

Spanish tennis legend Rafael Nadal has been one of the biggest names in tennis since the last 15 years. He has been very consistent and is considered one of the Greatest of all time. But off late, Nadal has struggled a lot with injuries. Ever since losing the French Open semifinal to Novak Djokovic this year, Nadal has played just 2 competitive tour matches. His foot niggle aggravated into an injury which forced him to end his season early.

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The Spaniard was under recovery for 4 months and returned to court this week to play the Mubadala World Tennis Championship. Unfortunately for him, he lost both the matches he played. He first lost to old rival and 3-time grand slam champion Andy Murray in straight sets 3-6,5-7 and then lost to Denis Shapovalov in three tight sets 7-6(4),3-6,6-10.

Nadal seemed physically fine on court and is scheduled to travel to Australia for the summer leg. He is expected to play the ATP 250 event at Melbourne before competing at the Australian Open. But after ending his campaign at Abu Dhabi, Nadal is non-committal about the Australian leg. He said that he will speak to his team before taking the next step. He also added that Abu Dhabi was positive overall despite consecutive losses.

‘I am playing to keep achieving goals’: Nadal

Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal

Despite winning the first set, Nadal lost to Shapovalov after playing a very poor second set. He couldn’t land as many first serves as needed which cost him during his service games. After the match, he said that he has enough self belief to be competitive at the highest level.

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“I still believe that I will be competitive enough to give myself chances to compete for the things that I have been competing for the last 15 years; if not, personally it doesn’t make sense,” he said.

He further added that he’s not playing for irrelevant things and wants to abide by the high standards he has set for himself. “I am not playing at all for money or just for fun, I am playing to keep achieving goals or at least to enjoy the process to try to achieve my goals. If then you don’t achieve, it’s fine, but the motivation and the passion is still there,” Nadal added.

Also read: “It’s going to be difficult for any player to live up to THEM,” Andy Murray on Roger and Rafa!