The Spaniard aspires to the eleventh title in the Italian capital and an optimal set-up for Roland Garros
Rafael Nadal’s defeat in Madrid left behind the bitter taste of having made it to the quarter-finals quickly, but also the optimism that he had not relapsed into injury and taken another step in his preparation for the real goal, Paris. “We knew what we came for. It was an easy defeat to digest,” the Balearics said after the defeat to Carlos Alcaraz.
Now it’s time to move on in Rome, as it is the prelude to Roland Garros and as he defends the title and won the 1,000 points last year against Novak Djokovic. His debut will be next Wednesday, against the winner of the match between John Isner and Francisco Cerúndolo, in a Foro Italico he knows perfectly because he has had ten wounds since 2005, three of them in the last four years. Denis Shapovalov makes his way in the round of 16, Casper Ruud and Hubert Hurkacz in the quarterfinals and Djokovic in the semifinals. Without Alcaraz, low from fatigue, the Serb is the big opponent in Rome and one of the three active, not counting Nadal, who know what it is like to win on these circuits, along with Andy Murray (2016) and Alexander Zverev (2018 ).
“I played in Madrid at my best level of the year,” warned the world number one, who has already reached two semifinals in 2022 and is waiting for a title that will channel the strangest season of his sports career. The Serb cannot afford any more setbacks, because next month he will put the prizes on the table at Roland Garros and Paris, with the 4,000 points that come with it.
Nadal has rested from the three titles amassed in the early part of the year and that, after the semi-finals in Paris, he will only defend 45 points for the remainder of the year, having stopped competing in August due to a foot problem. The room for improvement is very broad.
Source: La Verdad
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