Nadal: "I need to improve and I will improve"

Although the result does not show, 6-2, 6-2 and 6-2 against the Australian jordan thompsonthe debut of Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros he did not satisfy the Spaniard, who, a perfectionist, was convinced he needed to improve.

“I have to find continuity and that means concentration and sacrifice,” Nadal said shortly after taking the first step toward his fourteenth clay title. Paris.

The Spaniard was pleased to have won three sets, but recognized gaps in his game and a certain inability to impose a high level that brought him to the highest level in this tournament.

“There were good moments and others weren’t so good,” said Nadal, who knows that the rival, a player less trained on this surface, also doesn’t invite him to fire rockets.

The Spaniard started hard, with blows that forged his legend, a steamroller that went 4-1 in less than half an hour and was already weakening the Australian. But then the mechanical revolutions came down. “There’s a lack of continuity,” he stressed.

“My strength, aside from my mobility, is that I can hit the ball hard and with little risk, which forces others to take many risks to beat me,” Nadal analyzed.

Maintaining that scheme for several minutes is easier when your game has continuity, he added, but Nadal came in for his fourteenth. Roland Garros with only five battles on clay and no wins. Injuries have delayed his season and he needs to train in training and if he is to continue to advance in the tournament.

“Continuity and sacrifice”, he repeated, are his main lines in this edition where the eyes are resting on his left foot and the tennis player does not hide the pain, although he reduces its importance because he often lets him play at a good level.

Your statement on Romewhere he made sure that the feeling of pain did not allow him to be happy, created an earthquake in his followers, but Nadal recalled that he had also said before that he was confident in the ability to have options in Paris .

Ever since he arrived in the French capital, his obsession has been that, striving to raise the level, to put himself in a position to compete with important rivals. For that, Thompson’s proposal seems too small.

“The road is not easy, you have to be prepared to come and fight, especially in training. I have to find the solution in tennis to the problems that come,” he said.

On that line he puts the game against Thompson, another on the line of improvement, a chance to see that he lacks the touch that makes the difference, his legendary intensity. “That’s what I’ve always been doing, but this year I have to look more than ever,” he said.

This is how Nadal progresses in “his” tournament, with caution because of the dangers that await, but with confidence that he is always in his choices and faith in his work.

So he achieved 106 wins in Roland Garros, a contest in which he had lost only three times. So he was born again Australia at the beginning of the year when everyone considered him retired and he won his twenty -one Grand Slam, more than anyone in history.

This Monday, in the rainy atmosphere of Paris, but on the central court protected by its roof, he added his 299th victory to a major and, as his confession, it was a blessing for a 35-year-old that tennis player who fights with his physique based on self -sacrifice. .

“At this point in my career, it’s a gift to be here and to be able to compete at Roland Garros. I will do everything to give myself a chance to win,” he summarized.