World No.1 Rafael Nadal has given his verdict on the state of his knee after his first practice in London. The Spaniard came into the tournament with concerns over the state of his knee. Nadal had withdrawn ahead of his Paris-Bercy Masters quarter-final with Filip Krajinovic instigating speculation that he would not be able to participate in the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals.
Nadal has moved to allay the concerns stating: “The knee is doing well, I hope it is doing well. We worked very hard to recover. I am in London to play, to be competitive, to win the title, otherwise I would haven’t come [here]. There are all the best players and if you are not at 100% since the beginning, it’s almost impossible to do well.”
Nadal played a long stretch of tournaments over the summer and early autumn, and as a result worked the knee hard. He withdrew from the tournament in Basel before retiring mid-tournament in Paris. Nadal has never won the ATP Final, whether in London or in previous iterations he took part in in Shanghai.
Nadal also admitted that change in tennis can come quickly: “There will come a moment where we will see the younger players on TV and we won’t face them anymore. It’s an ATP Finals (edition) with new players, although Zverev is the only Next Gen player.” Nadal managed to defeat Zverev in a hard-fought meeting at the Australian Open in January. Zverev went on to secure wins against Nadal’s rivals Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic later in 2017.
Nadal’s draw keeps him and Roger Federer as the World No.2, in separate groups. Nadal still has a tough draw, with the likes of Grigor Dimitrov, David Goffin, and Dominic Thiem for company.
