Since arriving in Madrid, Rafa Nadal has been preparing for his assault on a sixth Mutua Madrid Open crown. The favourite in the Caja M\u00e1gica, a five-time champion, spoke to the press on Media Day, where he discussed his form, how important Madrid is on his schedule and, above all, the excitement of playing with fans in the stands.<\/p>\n
How has his training been here this week?<\/strong> There\u2019s no place like home<\/strong> Time to put his foot down<\/strong> How would he like to feel at the end of the week in Madrid?<\/strong> His form at this point of the season<\/strong> \u201cMy competitiveness in Barcelona was excellent, my game was more or less there and in the end it\u2019s the same as ever. I felt very good training before Monte Carlo, I think I was in great form, but then, when you don\u2019t play much for a while, the day may come when your form is not as good and it is more difficult for things to become automatic\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019ve been playing a lot, there are always days that are worse, but when you\u2019ve been playing a lot, you\u2019ve won matches and you have that bad day, it\u2019s easier to find the solutions because they come automatically. When you haven\u2019t played much, the solutions are more difficult to find and maybe that\u2019s what happened to me in Monte Carlo. In Barcelona I played more difficult matches, I felt pressure situations again\u2026 I think I\u2019ve done the right thing up to this point\u201d.<\/p>\n Still excited to achieve more<\/strong> What does he miss about the Rafa Nadal of 2005?<\/strong> \u201cNostalgia? No, honestly I\u2019m happy with the great memories of the various stages of my career. Of course, in 2005 everything was new, it was a feeling of experiencing new sensations and emotions every week and now when you\u2019ve been on tour for so many years, those feelings are different, you value it differently, although no less intensely. I\u2019m not hugely nostalgic, I\u2019m happy at this point to be doing what I do with my life. If I look back, all the things that have happened to me have been good and I am thankful for that. I think that my sporting career so far has been better than I could have dreamt and let\u2019s hope I can keep enjoying what I do for as long as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since arriving in Madrid, Rafa Nadal has been preparing for his assault on a sixth Mutua Madrid Open crown. The favourite in the Caja M\u00e1gica, a five-time champion, spoke to the press on Media Day, where he discussed his form, how important Madrid is on his schedule and, above all, the excitement of playing with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":76025,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[180,18],"tags":[41,228,159,208],"class_list":["post-76024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mens-tennis","category-mutua-news","tag-atp-en","tag-media-day","tag-mutua-madrid-open-2021-en","tag-rafa-nadal-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cI\u2019ve trained well. In fact, I did a double training session on Friday, yesterday, and I may do a double session today. That means I\u2019ve trained more than three hours and three hours. I feel good, excited to be here in Madrid. Back in a situation of strict isolation, but with a huge difference; we have fans and that helps you cope with everything else in terms of energy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cPlaying at home is always wonderful. We\u2019re talking about one of the most important tournaments of the year, it\u2019s a Masters 1000, therefore, honestly, the tournament could have been anywhere else and I guess I would be competing this week. It will be my fourth event of the year and my schedule is clear. All things being well, we\u2019ll do as planned, which is Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI haven\u2019t played much over the last year, I said so in Monte Carlo, it\u2019s time to push, to work hard over the next three months. I\u2019m very focused on that. Everyone knows that playing at home means a lot to me and I hope to be ready to enjoy as many days as possible with the fans here in Madrid\u201d.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhat I\u2019d like to do is win, basically. If I win it\u2019ll mean that I\u2019ve done a lot of things right but if we\u2019re talking about specifics, I think Barcelona was a step in the right direction for me, so what I think I\u2019d like to feel is that I\u2019m playing well\u201d.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAn athlete is sustained by training and results, that\u2019s the reality. I need to feel that I\u2019m playing well, that I\u2019m playing matches, that I\u2019m competitive against everyone and that\u2019s what has happened since my return to competition\u201d.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cEvery week is a different story and the only thing I can do is keep working with the excitement, attitude and intensity that I am and give myself the chance to keep progressing with a positive attitude in order to keep achieving goals\u201d.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI miss being young. The years have taken their toll, which I don\u2019t like. I think I\u2019ve always been pretty consistent, accepting every moment of my life and my career. There are times and moments that are for enjoying some things and having certain experiences and others for having others\u201d.<\/p>\n