Rafael Nadal exclusive interview: 'Covid made me question if I should keep on playing'

[ASFN Admin]

Of all the world’s tennis players, Rafael Nadal has approached the pandemic with the greatest sensitivity and inner strength. Since returning from a seven-month sabbatical in September, he has repeatedly stressed the triviality of sport, while continuing to compete with his customary ferocity – a tricky double-act to pull off. Yet the whole experience was not as straightforward as Nadal made it seem at the time. As he told Telegraph Sport on Thursday, he found it difficult to switch from his home in Mallorca to a hotel in Rome – where he played his first bubble-era tournament last autumn. His spirit, initially, was less with the day-to-day routine of tennis training than it was with the victims of Covid-19, whom he was working to support through his foundation. “It has been a tough year, I really believe, for everyone,” said Nadal, during a Zoom call from Madrid. “If you are not completely arrogant, everybody needs to be less happy under these very difficult circumstances around the world, no? Because you have a lot of people suffering, a lot of people have lost a family member, a lot of people are losing their companies, their job. “For me, personally, it has been tough. It was difficult for me to keep going after the lockdown. The circumstances made me think about what was the right decision for my career: if I keep playing, or stop for a little more? It was not an easy decision. So I missed the US Open last year - that was tough, but it was a decision that I needed to take. And then I just played Rome and Roland Garros. Finally, I was able to have success there.” It was Nadal’s triumph in Paris which has just earned him the Laureus world sportsman of the year award for 2021. Even if his own memories of that season are coloured with sadness, the facts are that he still landed a 20th major title, and thus moved level with Roger Federer at the top of the grand-slam table. Asked if this latest trophy meant more than his previous Laureus award, which he collected in 2011, Nadal replied “Every one is special, no? I don't know if it's the most emotional for me, but this is probably the most unexpected. “For me personally, it was not an easy year. I don't think it is a good thing to stop the body dramatically like we had to do for two months. We had lockdown, then when you come back – especially with older bodies that have [clocked up] a lot of kilometres – it is difficult to do so at the highest level. But I really believe that we managed it well. “Here we are in Madrid competing again,” added Nadal, who is due to play Alexander Zverev in this afternoon’s quarter-final. “I didn't play many tournaments [this year], only Australia before Monte Carlo. Every decision is respectful under the circumstances. And for me I make decisions thinking about my happiness, more than anything else. That's why I'm not playing that much. But I have developed the competitive spirit that I had when I had been playing [more].”

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