Rafael Nadal admits he can no longer give 100% every day on the Tour after producing a dream start to his campaign at the Madrid Masters.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion stormed to a 6-1, 6-0, win over wild card Darwin Blanch who was making his debut at the age of 16. Nadal’s one-sided encounter saw the Spaniard hit nine winners as he capitalised on a costly 27 unforced errors produced by his opponent. On paper, it appears that the former world No.1 is getting back to full form. However, the reality is not quite the same.
“I have been able to play a match against a player with a huge potential but he is still very young and still making mistakes,” Nadal said afterwards.
“I didn’t test much my body today. I think I played a decent match doing the things that I had to do to be through, but at the same time, I played against a player that today was not solid enough yet because he was making more mistakes.
“Probably the scenario, all the situation that he went through to play this kind of match didn’t help him.”
Rising star Blanch is a top 10 junior but is yet to break into the top 1000 on the professional circuit. He is managed by IMG who also owns the Madrid Open. Explaining how he managed to obtain a wild card for the tournament, as well as the Miami Open earlier this year.
Whilst there is a significant difference in experience between Nadal and the American, a win is still a boost for the 37-year-old who is likely to be playing his last ATP event on home soil this week. No retirement date has been set with the Spaniard yet to come to a decision. However, he admits his history of battles with injury is taking its toll on him.
“I try to play at my 100%, but I can’t give my 100% every day.” He said.
“The thing is before, most of the time, I was able to give my 100% of the 100%. Today I’m able to give my 100% of sometimes 40%, sometimes 60%, sometimes 70%, and if I am able to raise this percentage day after day or week after week, why not see in the future what can happen? If not, it’s impossible and doesn’t make sense.”
The admission is made even more sombre with the tennis star saying his goal of playing tennis long enough for his son to remember watching him play may not happen. His wife Maria gave birth to their first child in October 2022.
“I would love to play a little bit longer and give him a memory of myself playing tennis. That’s what will be the ideal thing for me and my wife and family.” Nadal reflected.
“But I will not probably be able to make that happen. I’m happy to have a great team, family and friends around me during all my life that helped me in every single way of being happy.”
Next up for Nadal in Madrid will be a showdown with Alex de Minaur who beat him in Barcelona last week. Should he win, it would be the first top 20 player he has defeated since the 2022 ATP Finals.
