The Balearics will travel to London on Monday to try and play the third big game of the season
“My intention is to play Wimbledon.” That’s how clear Rafa Nadal was on Monday about his plans to go to Wimbledon, a tournament he hasn’t played in three years and which, in his own words, is getting him excited. “This week, that there’s been training sessions, tells me there may be opportunities. I leave for London on Monday. When I travel, it’s because I intend to play. I will train for a week, I will play an exhibition in Hurlingham, as I have done in other years, and I will try to prepare as best I can,” added the Spaniard during the press conference he held on the tracks of the Mallorca club where he has been training behind closed doors in recent days and this Friday, already in front of the media, together with Feliciano López, who had just played the previous phase of Queen’s.
Nadal has tested himself on this surface, on which he has officially not played since the 2019 Wimbledon semifinals against Roger Federer, after undergoing pulsed radiofrequency injections in Barcelona that aim to reduce the impact of foot pain without resorting to take to infiltrations with anesthesia before each encounter.
“It’s not something right away, but changes are noticeable. They are strange sensations, if I’m honest. My joint pain has subsided, the pain that left me unable to support myself. Strange things happen to the foot during nerve treatment, sometimes one part of the foot becomes numb, then the other. I have slopes but it seems to be normal and in theory and after a few weeks the nerve reorganizes itself and sends the right signals. Let’s hope when this happens, things go well. I haven’t been crippled in a week. I’m happy. In my daily life I have suffered pain, but in a different way, which for me is an improvement,” explains Nadal.
The tennis player, this year’s champion in Australia, Melbourne, Acapulco and Roland Garros, leads the race for the Turin Masters Cup with 5,620 points, enough income to secure a place in the season’s final tournament. Nadal’s entry into Wimbledon was questionable because, although he stated he would try it after winning his fourteenth title in Paris, he was unsure how his foot would react to the treatment in Barcelona. That is why he did not enter any tournament to prepare for the attack on the third Wimbledon, as he did in 2008, when he won at Queen’s, and in 2010, when he also reached the quarter-finals in this event.
The Manacor man, who was seen on crutches a few days ago, raising doubts about his stadium, will attend Wimbledon, meaning no previous tournaments on grass, which isn’t surprising given he hasn’t played a previous tournament at Wimbledon since 2015. and has since reached two semifinals in London, in 2018 and 2019.
“After three years of not playing on grass, there has to be progress. I am improving. I have another week of training in London. At tennis level, having played well at Roland Garros gives you confidence, but grass is a completely different surface, without much logic. Every round gets difficult. You just have to see that last week in S’Hertogenbosch a tennis player won without ATP victories’, he said.
With the losses of Daniil Medvedev, sanctioned by Wimbledon, along with the rest of the Russians and Belarusians, and of Alexander Zverev, who tore his ankle ligaments at Roland Garros, Nadal will be placed second at the All England Club, so he will avoid face Novak Djokovic until the final.
Moreover, Nadal confirmed his next moves as soon as he plays Wimbledon. “I’ll be at Wimbledon, I’ll rest, then I’ll try to play the 1,000 Canadian Masters and then the US Open,” the 22-time Grand Slam champion clarified.
About his personal life, Nadal was blunt and reserved. “If everything goes well, I’ll become a father. I’m not used to talking about my personal life, because I’m in the spotlight enough for my professional life. We live quieter in a lower profile. I don’t know how my life is will change because it has never happened to me before. I don’t expect it to mean any change in my professional life,” said Nadal, who is becoming a father for the first time with his wife Mery Perelló.
Source: La Verdad
I’m an experienced news author and editor based in New York City. I specialize in covering healthcare news stories for Today Times Live, helping to keep readers informed on the latest developments related to the industry. I have a deep understanding of medical topics, including emerging treatments and drugs, the changing laws that regulate healthcare providers, and other matters that affect public health.
