Rafael Nadal-“I’m Not Going to Run After the Place of World No.1”

The 11-time Roland Garros champion, Rafael Nadal has been listed as one of the best ten athletes of the world by L’Equipe. The ‘King of Clay’ strives to maintain his glory in the upcoming season. Nadal is not focusing on the World Number one rather he looks forward to playing some competitive matches. “My goal is to be happy doing what I do and being competitive when I play. I want to fight for the things that make me really feel alive, you know, for the things that motivate me. So I’m not going to run after the place of world No. 1 because it’s not my main goal. Of course, I prefer to be number one than number two, and I prefer to be number two than number five, that’s obvious,” Nadal opened up about his goals this year.

“After the surgeries, I don’t want to step back. I want to move forward,” Nadal added. “After all, I suffered last year in terms of injuries, I don’t want to do mistakes in terms of playing without being 100 per cent.” This year the Spaniard, retired from the US open semifinal due to his knee injury against Juan Martin del Potro. Nadal underwent surgery this year to remove a loose intra-articular body and he began his training sessions just three weeks back.

“The thing that I don’t want to do is suffer more than what I did last year, because if you do (suffer injuries two) years in a row, that mentally kills you,” he said. “I really believe that I have to keep having tennis to play in my career, and I really feel that my body is not going to get worse every year. Really my only goal is to keep doing the things that make me happy, and today playing tennis makes me happy, and I want to do it the best way possible and as long as possible.”