Nadal\u2019s first step at the Mutua Madrid Open was little more than a warm-up. The Spaniard only needed one hour to cruise past the young Darwin Blanch, giving himself the opportunity to enjoy another match in the Spanish capital. Without having had to push his body too hard, the Balearic Islander was in a pragmatic mood at his post-match press conference, arguing that logic will show him the say.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played a player who has good potential but who made a lot of errors, he made it easy for me\u201d, explained the Mallorcan. \u201cWith all due respect to a player who has a great future ahead of him, I think he\u2019s a player who makes mistakes. The match lasted one hour\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a week of endless questions about his medium-term future, the Spaniard has managed to keep his feet on the ground. Nadal is determined to evaluate every small daily improvement, he is doing everything in his power to give himself the best opportunity. However, the sweat and tears will be for nothing if he is unable to perform going forward. The fact that his opener was such a straightforward affair has done nothing to change his perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy view on Paris will not change. I\u2019m not going to make a decision here, I\u2019ll make it after Rome\u201d, he explained. \u201cI\u2019m going to lay out my own path. If I make it, I make it; if I don\u2019t, I don\u2019t. I\u2019ll play in Paris if I feel I can compete. I don\u2019t mean win, I mean go out on court with a feeling that I can give my all and compete. I think it\u2019s logical that after everything I have done in Paris, that I don\u2019t want to feel I can\u2019t on a court that\u2019s so important to me. It was a comfortable match and I did what I had to do. Let\u2019s see what happens\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Spaniard is on a road replete with challenges and one of the biggest will come on Saturday when he faces Australia\u2019s Alex de Minaur for the second consecutive week. De Minaur is one of the toughest players on tour and Nadal\u2019s executioner on the clay of Barcelona. A win over the Aussie would be considered something of an upset for Nadal, who is approaching the match with interest in more than just the result.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not something that I worry too much about either way. The only thing that changes for me is the emotions, playing another day here in Madrid. In terms of the game, I\u2019m indifferent about winning or losing on Saturday if I\u2019m honest\u201d, he added. \u201cTo me there are much more important things at the moment. A win won\u2019t change my career or my tournament here. I\u2019m realistic and I\u2019m not aspiring to win. If I were, we\u2019d be having a different conversation, which is the one we\u2019ve had for 15 years. We\u2019re in a different moment, Saturday is an opportunity to test my game\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Barcelona, I played a set and my game was good. In the second I was unable to do it. To me it\u2019s an opportunity to play against an opponent that makes things very difficult for me. He makes you play every point, and that is more difficult for me at the moment. I\u2019m aware that to win this kind of match I need time and physical effort for most points. I have to see to what point I\u2019m able to do that\u201d, explained the five-time champion. \u201cI\u2019ll repeat what I said, my priority is trying to make sure nothing else happens, to give myself the opportunity to continue. After a year and a half, this is the first time I\u2019ve played two weeks consecutively, even though it\u2019s not many matches. To me that\u2019s also important on a personal level and to see how my body adapts. On Saturday I\u2019m going to try and go out and enjoy myself and try and compete. We\u2019ll see what happens. Anything\u2019s possible. I\u2019m not the favourite for the match\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a tournament where his happiness is unrelated to victories or trophies, but to coming through the ordeal unscathed, Nadal is in no doubt of his goal in Madrid; to build strength while keeping his body intact. Being able to give it another shot is a victory in itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I leave here without having hurt myself and with the feeling that I\u2019ve competed again without anything happening, and that I can play at a competitive level on Saturday, then I can say that I\u2019ve had another successful week. Then it\u2019ll be time to take another step. But I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s today that I have to take it or in two days. I think it\u2019s too early and I have to give myself a chance. I have no need to deal with any pressure. I think it\u2019s important to give myself a chance to see how I can adapt to the competition. It might be difficult to understand, I\u2019ve played very little over the last year and a half. I need time to see how I adapt to the loads, or pushing myself. I want to at least give it a go\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nadal\u2019s first step at the Mutua Madrid Open was little more than a warm-up. The Spaniard only needed one hour to cruise past the young Darwin Blanch, giving himself the opportunity to enjoy another match in the Spanish capital. Without having had to push his body too hard, the Balearic Islander was in a pragmatic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":93488,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[838,824],"tags":[1026,831,852],"class_list":["post-93583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticias-tenis-masculino-en","category-noticias-mutua-en","tag-2024-en","tag-mutua-madrid-open-en-2","tag-rafael-nadal-en-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93583","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\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93584,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93583\/revisions\/93584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}