Rafael Nadal: “I Lost Things On the Road”

The defending champion, Rafael Nadal reached the semifinals of the Montreal Open 2019 after defeating Fabio Fognini in quarterfinals on Friday. The Spaniard is bidding for his fifth Rogers Cup title and has a chance to defend a non-clay title for the first time in his career.

The 33-year-old claimed his first Rogers Cup trophy in 2005, defeating the 8-time Grand Slam champion, Andre Agassi in the finals. In the post-match press conference in Montreal, Rafael Nadal talked about how different he is now than what he was in 2005.

Nadal suggested that he wished to have the legs that he had back in 2005. He said, “Well, probably if with my knowledge today of the sport and of the tennis in general, I will have the chance to have the legs that I had in that 2005, probably would be a very, very good player, no (smiling)? That’s impossible.”

The eighteen time Grand Slam champion, Rafael Nadal has struggled with injuries on the hardcourt all over his career.  He has been in and out of the season for multiple times in the past decade and a half. Rafael Nadal has certainly missed a lot of opportunities to win more number of titles due to injuries.

However, the Mallorcan revealed that he tries to add other things to compensate for his shortcomings in order to be contentious in all these years. He continued, “I lost things on the road, so I just tried to add other things on the way to keep being competitive during all these years.”

Rafael Nadal further added that he has always been able to find a solution to be on the top of the game. “One of the most important things for me personally and one of the things that I’m more satisfied is I have been able to find always a solution to keep being competitive at the highest level possible after a lot of problems, a lot of issues,” the world No.2 said.

“My personality didn’t change much. But, of course, I am almost 15 years older (smiling), “ the Spaniard concluded.