For Rafael Nadal living in the moment is key for him as he continues his clay court campaign this week at the Barcelona Open.
The world No.1 is bidding to win his 11th title at the tournament, which has its centre court named in his honour. Nadal enters Barcelona winning the last 36 sets played on the clay. On Sunday he won his 31st Masters 1000 title in Monte Carlo after defeating Kei Nishikori in the final. Once again, he is the player to beat on the surface at the age of 31.
Despite his dominant position on the tour, the Spaniard knows better than anybody that it isn’t going to last forever. Although retirement plans are the last thing on his mind at present.
“My true feeling is that these kind of things are not going to happen forever, so I just try to enjoy and to play with full passion and with full energy and concentration, full love for the sport for as long as I can,” Nadal said earlier this week.
“I know the day to say goodbye is closer than 10 years ago.
“It’s something that I am not worried about, but it’s a real thing. So I’m just enjoying every day and trying to play with the best attitude possible, to keep being happy playing tennis.”
Nadal’s start to the season has been far from perfect. In the quarterfinals of the Australian Open he was forced to retire during his match due to a hip injury. An issue that forced him out of action for almost three months. Prior to that, he also withdrew from the ATP World Tour Finals last November due to a knee injury.
Despite the setbacks, the Spaniard is hoping to make up for them on his beloved clay. 54 out of his 76 tour titles has occurred on the surface, including a record 10 French Open trophies. No player has won more titles on a clay court than Nadal in the Open Era.
“There remains a lot of the clay-court season, hopefully, hopefully, a lot of matches,” he said about his season.
“I hope to have the chance to be healthy for the whole clay-court season. That’s it, yeah, it’s an important beginning.
“My goal is always the same thing — to be healthy, because if I am not healthy, I cannot have any goals.”
The Barcelona test
Bidding to continue his winning streak in his home country, Nadal admits that he faces a tough task in Barcelona. He will be one of nine top 20 players participating in the draw. In his section, Nadal could play Kei Nishikori once again in the third round followed by Novak Djokovic. The Serbian recently took a wildcard into the event.
“Every tournament is a different story, that Djokovic plays complicates things more but I think it’s something very good for the tournament and I will give my best to win.” He told reporters on Monday. “Without a doubt, I believe that this year there is one of the most demanding draws of all the times I have participated.”
He heads into the draw with a surge in confidence given his recent successes both on the tour and in the Davis Cup. Nevertheless, it will only be the third tournament has has played in so far this year.
“I arrived at the most important part of the year with great confidence and in a very good form, I trained very well in Valencia (Davis Cup) and last week I felt very good in Monte Carlo too … I hope to keep it up here in Barcelona.” He concluded.
Nadal, who has a first round bye, will start his campaign against either Andreas Haider-Maurer or Roberto Carballes Baena.
