World No. 1 Rafael Nadal, who is the overwhelming favourite to claim an unprecedented 11th French Open crown has revealed how injuries have affected his game in 2018.
The 16-time Grand Slam champion, who wasn’t as sharp as he usually, is on the Parisian clay in his Roland Garros opener against Simone Bolelli of Italy as he faced a set point in the third set, was back to his normal self, swatting aside Guido Pella of Argentina 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 in the second round on Thursday. With his annihilation of the Argentine, the Spaniard laid out a marker, sending an ominous warning to his rivals.
Despite his comfortable victories in both the first and the 2nd round, Nadal claimed that he hasn’t got time to improve his game in 2018 as he was hampered by a hip injury during the first quarter of the year and since then he has been playing non-stop on the men’s circuit. He acknowledged that he needed to fine-tune his backhand to further boost his chances of winning a 17th Major title in the French capital.
“I always try to improve the important things,” Nadal said.
“For example, my backhand, be able to open more directions, more winners, but in particular this year, it hasn’t been the right year for that, because I haven’t been able to practice almost.
“I had to leave aside the first tournaments of the year. And in Australia I only practised week before the tournament, and then I couldn’t play.
“Then the week before Acapulco, once again, I couldn’t play.
“The thing is that every time you have to start again.
“And in Acapulco I hurt myself again, and I don’t know if you remember but I played in the Davis Cup and I hardly got there.
“I didn’t even know whether I would be able to play and I didn’t have much time to practice.
“So it hasn’t been a typical year. I haven’t had much time to practice. But when I practice, I always try obviously to improve.”
