Rafael Nadal: 'The circumstances made me think about what was...'

Tennis legend Rafael Nadal is known to be a humble person. After enjoying great success, the Spaniard still holds his core values ​​and has not changed as an individual. It is this attitude of yours that has helped you maintain success for so many years. Recently, Nadal made an interesting revelation. He mentioned that he would give up his French Open title if it meant erasing all the unfortunate incidents that have affected humanity over the past year. The effects of the pandemic cause a great loss of human life. Along with the loss of life, people also lost their jobs and, as a result, countries suffered economically on a large scale. Considering the seriousness of what was happening, the Spaniard had to contemplate whether he wanted to go to the tennis courts during such a delicate period. He even skipped the US Open to prepare for Roland Garros. This season, the Mallorcan superstar won her twelfth title at the ATP 500 Barcelona Open. Before that, Andrey Rublev defeated him at the Monte Carlo Masters. He is currently in Madrid, competing in the second ATP Masters 1000 clay court event. After his passage through Madrid, he will head to Rome, to compete in the ATP Italian Open. After that, he will seek to claim the 14th French Open title and surpass his rival and his friend Roger Federer; the two are currently tied at 20 majors each. In a recent interview, the 34-year-old revealed that the COVID-19 crisis had made him take serious stock of his priorities. He also claimed that the pandemic-related doubts played a big part in his decision to skip the defence of his US Open title.

Rafael Nadal on the pandemic

"For me, personally, it (the pandemic) has been tough," Rafael Nadal told The Telegraph. "It was difficult for me to keep going after the lockdown. The circumstances made me think about what was the right decision for my career: if I keep playing, or stop for a little more? It was not an easy decision. So I missed the US Open last year - that was tough, but it was a decision that I needed to take," he added. "And then I just played Rome and Roland Garros. Finally, I was able to have success there." The Spaniard has often called on his colleagues to have perspective about the devastation caused by the pandemic, something he touched upon further during the interview. "It has been a tough year, I really believe, for everyone," the 34-year-old said. "If you are not completely arrogant, everybody needs to be less happy under these very difficult circumstances around the world, no? Because you have a lot of people suffering, a lot of people have lost a family member, a lot of people are losing their companies, their job."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3o78mXd