Spaniard, a doubtful starter at Wimbledon
Mallorca (Spain): Rafael Nadal has become the first player to book his place at the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London in November after the Spaniard won Sunday a record 10th French Open title in Paris.
Nadal has claimed four titles on the tour this year, winning 46 matches and losing just six in a stellar 2017. All his titles however, have come on clay.
“I’ve had a great season so far and I am happy to have already qualified for London,” the Spaniard was quoted as saying by the ATP website Tuesday. “I could not play last year because of injury so I look forward to returning to London in November.”
The ATP World Tour Finals, which features the world’s top ranked eight singles players and top eight doubles pairs, will be played at London’s O2 Arena, November 12-19.
This year’s Australian Open champion Roger Federer is next in line to qualify for the event. The Swiss will return to action in Stuttgart this week after sitting out the entire clay court season to prepare for Wimbledon.
Meanwhile, in spite of being in the best form of his life, Nadal again asserted Tuesday that he is doubtful for Wimbledon starting in three weeks time.
“It’s not that I am apprehensive about playing on grass,” said Nadal who won on the grass surface in 2008 and 2010. “It’s just that I am apprehensive about my knees. They are not getting younger and I want to keep them intact for the next couple of years… unless fully fit, I may skip Wimbledon.” It will be sad if he doesn’t because then the fans will be robbed of seeing another epic between him and Swiss Federer.
Nadal technically explained the reasons for being a doubtful starter at SW19. “On grass you have to bend a lot and play, while at Roland Garros, I can stay upright a loss,” the Spaniard pointed out.
“At Wimbledon, however, you have to play low… that puts a great deal of pressure on my knees. So unless I am 100 per cent sure of the knees holding through the tournament, I will not play. But it has got nothing to do with my liking for grass… I like playing on grass and have been in five finals, remember that.”
Meanwhile while looking back at the magical clay court season when he won a 10th title at Monte Carlo and Barcelona and a fifth at Madrid, before achieving the La Decima at Roland Garros, the Spaniard finally admitted that winning the French Open for the 10th time had indeed been ‘special’. Initially he had underplayed the La Decima.
“There have been magical things that happened for me at the French Open,” he told reporters here. “The title was very important for me. (There) have been some tough moments with injuries, so it’s great to have (a) big success like this again,” he added.
