Rafa Nadal: The first goal is to try to compete, I'm going day by day
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Rafael Nadal has expressed a cautious approach towards his return to the clay court season, emphasizing a day-by-day strategy without setting concrete expectations.
Speaking before the ceremony of the Second Rafael Nadal Foundation Awards, which honored former Brazilian soccer player Rai Souza for his educational and sports-based project ‘Gol de Letra’, Nadal shared his aspirations and current challenges.
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“I will do my best to try to start the clay season, which is my goal, I am working for that and striving for that goal, but I don’t dare to say anything about what might happen because lately it has been difficult for me to make predictions, unfortunately,” Nadal said.
He acknowledged his continuous training efforts despite not being able to adhere to his preferred schedule.
“I’ve not stopped training at any time. I’m trying all the time. I feel fine, I just haven’t managed to follow the schedule I would have liked to. Hopefully things can change, but as you can imagine I can’t say because I don’t know myself,” Nadal continued.
Nadal is a realist
Regarding his outlook on returning to competitive play, Nadal described himself as a realist rather than an optimist.
“It doesn’t matter whether I’m optimistic or not; I’m a realist. For the last year and a half or two it’s been impossible for me to compete, so the first objective is to try to compete and I’m going day by day,” Nadal stressed.
“If I had to be optimistic or negative, I probably wouldn’t even be trying. It’s a long time, I’m very old and I’ve got a very long career behind me. At the end of the day I try not to be one thing or the other, I try to go day by day, do the work I have to do to give myself opportunities and we’ll see how long we can try.”
Nadal also highlighted his pragmatic perspective due to the challenges he’s encountered, including withdrawing from the Indian Wells tournament.
“The reality is that I didn’t feel ready to start playing a tournament at this level, with the little training background I had behind me at the level I needed,” Nadal explained.
“I didn’t want to start a tournament coming from where I came from, with no guarantee of being able to advance to at least the levels that I think I need to demand of myself to try and start a tournament.”
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