Tennis
Rafael Nadal resigned to no longer fighting to be first
(Acapulco) Rafael Nadal, absolute record holder for Grand Slam victories after his 21and title acquired in Australia last month, however resigns himself to no longer fighting for the place of world number 1 at 35 years old.
The Spaniard, today 5and of the ATP ranking, easily qualified for the 2and round of the ATP 500 tournament in Acapulco, Mexico on Tuesday, but does not believe he can dethrone Serbian Novak Djokovic or his likely successor, Russian Daniil Medvedev.
“I think that’s a bygone era now. My physical problems unfortunately prevent me from being able to hope to become number one again, ”he regretted at a press conference on Tuesday after his victory against the American Denis Kudla.
Nadal became N.1 for the first time on August 18, 2008 and has not had this honor since January 10, 2020. However, he remains in the top five in the world, currently 50 points from 4andthe Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, and 1587 points in front of the 6andthe Italian Matteo Berrettini.
“I sometimes felt in a position to be number one, but my physical condition did not allow it. Today my goals are different, I’m not going to pursue this goal, it would be a mistake to persevere, ”said the Mallorcan.
Before his victory in Australia, he had been sidelined for more than four months for treatment of a left foot injury and contracting the coronavirus late last year.
“I’ve been playing rather little for years,” recalled Nadal. “I’m asked if I’m going to reduce the number of my appearances even more, but if I reduce them even more, I might as well quit tennis,” he noted.
“This tournament (that of Acapulco) is one of those where historically I had good feelings”, he recalled.
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Sophia Jhon is a sports journalist and author. He has worked as a news editor for Sportish and is now a sport columnist for the same publication. Alberta’s professional interests lie largely in sports news, with an emphasis on English football. He has also written articles on other sporting topics.