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Nadal: I played tennis with a lot of anti-inflammatory drugs but I was always limping; I thought I had to quit

It's been 25 years since Rafael Nadal spoke to MARCA for the first time and now, 22 majors later, he hasn't lost an ounce of that same sparkle when the tape recorder is turned on. He responds patiently, elaborates and does not dodge any question, although he can always surprise the journalist with one of his famous 'banana shot' if they persist more than is necessary.

A genius and star of a sport that has never been the same in Spain since his spectacular emergence in 2005. Long live the king.

QUESTION: I don't know if you've been told this before, but chasing your son around corners when he starts to walk is harder than a five-set match... Has it changed your life a lot?

ANSWER. Well, of course it has been a drastic change, but I have to organize myself to be able to continue doing my professional life in the best possible way. I am happy, enjoying a new phase, which was also due. I always thought that all this would come when I retired. That's what I always had in my head. The thing is that my career, luckily, has lasted much longer than I expected. So I have to learn to live with this new stage of my life and try to remain as competitive as possible.

Q. Victory in Melbourne, victory in Paris, semifinals in London? Where does this 2022 rank in your prolific career?

A. Looking back, the first part of the season was very, very exciting and emotional, because I was coming from five very difficult months and my foot was not good. Also, during the exhibition in Abu Dhabi I caught the virus and I was at home for 10 days and I was devastated. In fact, when I traveled to Australia, just two days after recovering, I was not sure if I should go. Then I started to play well but I could not imagine what was going to happen later in Melbourne, with one of the most exciting finals I have ever played (Nadal beat Daniil Medvedev in five sets).

Rafa Nadal, full interview: "I do not visualize my retirement".

Until Indian Wells I didn't lose any match - 20 straight wins - but in the semi-final against Carlos (Alcaraz), at the end of the third set, that's when I broke my rib. That day, back in the locker room, I could hardly breathe, but I decided to play the final (against Taylor Fritz) because they told me it was probably a muscle spasm. Obviously, if I had known that I had a broken rib I would not have played it. From then on, the year was very complicated.

Q. In spite of that, you pull yourself out of the woods and win for the 14th time in Paris.

A. Yes, but in a quite unexpected way because a week before I had come out limping from Rome. That's the truth. It is clear that if the doctors had not found the solution to numb the nerve in my foot to remove the pain, I would not have been able to win Roland Garros. I arrived having had a very bad preparation but I had the confidence of having won in Australia and the day I needed to play very well, in the quarter-finals against Novak Djokovic, I did it. You also have to be realistic and admit that the semi-finals against Zverev were being very complicated and anything could have happened but the poor guy blew out his ankle.

Q. The fairytale ended at Wimbledon. A pity.

A. Yes, it was. After winning at Roland Garros I was happy but at the same time I thought I was going to have to retire if a solution was not found for my foot because I could not continue with those chronic pains. The thing is that the new treatment worked and mentally I was much more comfortable. In fact, not since my second title in 2010 had I played so well in London. I was in a very good personal position to try to win it again.

On that stage I got hurt - Nadal retired and did not play the semi-finals against Nick Kyrgios - and from then on the year has been a disaster, because I did it again the week before the U.S. Open but I did not want to say anything at the time because I'm tired of talking about sorrows (Rafa laughs). Then I had to recover again and then my son was born, so it was difficult to reach the last stretch of the season with optimal preparation.

Q. But the bottom line is good, isn't it?

A. Of course it is. When I look back on this year, the difficult moments and the injuries will fade into the background and it will be that I won two Grand Slam titles so the bottom line is fantastic and very exciting, but also very painful. That's the reality

Q. How is your left foot? Have you resorted to pulsed radiofrequency injections again or do you plan to do so before traveling to Australia?

Nadal tells how pulsed radiofrequency injections have changed his life

A. The truth is that I have done it many times after Wimbledon because the injury is incurable and when the nerve starts to hurt you have to do it again. I have to thank Mario, my regular anesthesiologist in Barcelona, and Dr. Angel Ruiz-Cotorro, who were the ones who put me in contact with David Abejon, a specialist in the Pain Unit, to start a treatment that has drastically changed not only my career, which in the end is secondary, but my personal life. Now I am much happier, beyond winning or losing on the court, because I was suffering from a limp. I played tennis with lots and lots of anti-inflammatories but I was limping all day long. I thought I had to quit tennis because I had lost my vitality and I was a sad person most days.

Q. In less than a month, on January 16, the Australian Open starts. How will you prepare for the first major of the year?

A. I will probably travel on December 26 because on the 31st I will play in the United Cup - a new mixed team tournament - against Cameron Norrie. I'm looking forward to sharing a team with my teammates and I'm sure it will be a fun experience. I will play at least two matches before the Australian Open - on January 2nd I will play against Nick Kyrgios - which will be very good for me and hopefully we can advance further but it is clear that the draw -Spain shares a group with Great Britain and the local Australia - is complicated. We have to be realistic and admit that I'm going to be a bit short of fitness, but I'm going to try to win or at least get to the level I need to be competitive in Melbourne.

Q. Will you play something else before making your debut at the Australian Open?

A. I don't like to play the week before a Grand Slam. I haven't done it for 15 or 16 years and I'm not going to do it now.

Q. You have incorporated Gustavo Marcaccio to your technical team in substitution of Francis Roig. Why him? What does he bring to you?

A. He has been with the Academy for a year, but I have known him for a long time because he worked with Juan Monaco, one of my best friends on the circuit, and I always had very good references of him. He is a serious and hard-working person and once Fracis decided to leave I needed to incorporate someone, among other things because both Carlos (Moya) and Marc (Lopez) are fathers too and can't accompany me everywhere. Besides, someone new always stimulates all the members of the team.

Q. Can the fact that a friend like David Ferrer is the new Spanish Davis Cup captain make you get on board one last time?

A. No, because I do not play representing my country depending on who is the captain. Besides, I also had an excellent relationship with Sergi (Bruguera). Playing for your country, at least in theory, should never depend on who the captain is. In the end it is a much more important thing than all this so I have never thought about it this way. I am happy for him, without any doubt, because I think he deserves it for everything he has been as a tennis player and also as a representative of our country. Having said that, right now it is very difficult for me to answer your question. In the ideal world, I would like to play one last time in the Davis Cup to be able to say goodbye on the court of what is the most important team competition in our sport, but the real world depends on many other factors and we will see how everything goes.

Q. Federer, Nadal, Djokovic? Are you bored with the debates about the greatest?

A. No, I'm not bored, but I'm not a great... Let's see, I understand and I think it's good for the promotion of our sport. Besides, the press has to write things, but my way of understanding this debate has not changed over the years. There will be one who will be the best, which I don't think is easy to define because everyone has their arguments to defend one player or another beyond the objective data. Besides, two of those three players are still active today. In the end, what matters is that Federer, Djokovic and I have done much more than we had dreamed of. I don't like to talk about these things because I am part of the equation but by numbers we have achieved things that had never been done before in our sport, so the three of us will go down in tennis history.

Of course I would like to be the one who finishes with the most majors. Yes, of course you would. I am a competitor, no doubt about it, but for me it has never been an obsession and never will be. Well, it may be a dream, but not an obsession at all. In the end I always say the same thing and I can only thank life for everything that has made me live for so many years, not only as a tennis player but as a sports fan, because I have been able to live many things that I would never have dreamed of when I was little.

Q. In 20 years, when Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are asked who was their great rival, it is more than likely that both will choose you. Are you the cornerstone of the 'Big Three'?

A. It's true that I was Federer's first great rival so I understand that he sees it this way. Then, when Novak arrived, it is true that Federer was still better than me but in the following years I won more than Roger so I have also coincided more times with Djokovic on the court. In other words, I have been more his great rival than Roger. In the end I see it as something positive because it is true that between the three of us we have won a lot but I don't think that any of us have been able to win more than Roger.

Q. After the overflowing emotion that was experienced with Federer's farewell at the Laver Cup, how do you visualize his retirement?

A. I do not visualize it. Roger's retirement was a sad and moving day. I think he is one of the great icons of the history of sport in general, so it was a tough moment, and not only as a rival and partner but as a lover of tennis. The same thing happened with Pau (Gasol) or Zinedine Zidane and it will happen with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. They are people you have grown up with for a lifetime, sharing moments and watching them on television, so they are almost like your family. And when they retire, as happened with Roger, you know you're not going to see them play again.

Rafa and his rivalry with Federer and Djokovic: "We have pushed ourselves to the limit, to improve, to always be at the top of our game.

As for my retirement, I don't visualize it for a simple fact, because I'm not too much into trying to guess, predict or prepare for the future, because things change very fast, don't they? I know that that moment is closer than it was last year, without any doubt, and than it was two years ago. That's pure logic. But in the end it's a thing that when it has to happen, it will happen. I would like it to be on a tennis court, that's for sure.

Q. Retiring with a match against Alcaraz at the new Estadio Santiago Bernabeu would not be bad at all.

A. I'm not in a position to talk about that.

Q Paris 2024...?

A. Well, I don't know. I really don't visualize it. Besides, there is another issue and that is that when you start thinking a lot about retirement you are already entering that dynamic and I am not at that point.

Q. Alcaraz, Sinner, Rune, Aliassime... it seems that the new generation has less vertigo to success than Zverev, Medvedev, Tsitsipas or Rublev. What do you think?

A. No, I don't think so. Let's see, in any case they will be better, if we can analyze it in this way, because Carlos (Alcaraz) is very special and is a player that I think is going to define an era. I also say with total humility, and we must not lose sight of this, that when Zverev, Medvedev or Tsitsipas arrived, Federer, Djokovic and I were still at a very high level. Athletes also feed back on victories and for many years our rivals have been able to win very little and when you win, you improve. So these new generations have more chances than other rivals had at the time because now, beyond Roger's retirement, Novak and I play fewer and fewer tournaments.

In short, the new players, besides being very good, are able to visualize victory as the previous players could not, and that helps them a lot to improve. I will give the example of David Ferrer, who was an incredible player but he ran into us many times in very advanced rounds. He is one of the most consistent players ever, but he never won a major.

Q. What makes Alcaraz so special?

A. Normally what makes someone so special is being very good, nothing else (Rafa laughs). When I say that he is special I mean that he is very fast, that he hits very hard, that he has a great drive and a great backhand and that he has the ability to be a great tennis player.

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