Rafael Nadal is ‘disappointed’ to be struggling with a back injury on the eve of the Australian Open and confessed he has lost a lot of the ‘positive feelings’ he had heading into the tournament.
Nadal, the 20-time Grand Slam champion from Spain, has not won the Australian Open since 2009 and has seen his preparations hampered by a stiff back this year.
He was forced to pull out of Spain’s ATP Cup matches in the week building up to the first major tennis tournament of 2021 and is struggling to play freely, despite returning to practice.
Nadal is still confident of playing the tournament and insists the problem is ‘not serious’, although he accepts the situation is far from ideal.
‘I don’t know the percentage [of playing],’ said Nadal ahead of his first-round match against Serbia’s Laslo Djere. ‘I don’t think about that now. I think about we are on Sunday. I have tomorrow and then playing Tuesday, no? No, I don’t think about not playing.
‘The thing is about in which conditions I going to start the tournament, no? I have been practising great I think for lot of weeks, and I’m disappointed about what happened the last couple of weeks, of course.
‘The whole positive feelings that I had one week and a half ago, two weeks and a half ago now disappeared a little bit, of course, because I was not able to practise the right way the last week and a half. At the same time I am still not having the best feeling possible on the back.
‘But I am practising again. I did a lot of things to recover. Is not serious, but the muscle is still tight, so is difficult to play with freedom of movements today. Let’s hope situation keep improving. We are doing everything. My physio is here, the doctors here, everybody is helping me in all possible ways.
‘I hope to be ready, that’s all. I know sometimes things change quick. I going to keep staying positive and keep doing everything I can.’
Nadal has arrived at tournaments in the past when struggling physically and he hopes to draw on that experience at Melbourne Park.
‘No, you never know what’s going on. But, of course, I have experience on all of this,’ he added. ‘Of course, it’s not the ideal situation to start a tournament with problems. A demanding tournament like this one, playing best-of-five, everything…
‘Another thing is what can or can’t happen during the next couple of days. The only thing that I can do is stay positive, work on the recover, do all the things that I can, then hope the situation will be improving.
‘Let’s see. I can’t say more today because is not an important injury but is a thing that stays here for a lot of days. Of course, it worries me a little bit.’
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