“At 12:20 p.m. I was in the room, so unfortunately I couldn’t see the celebration. But for me it was a prize to be able to see the match in the stadium. Today [por este domingo] I had work to do, so I had to be consistent. But I liked it, it was the first Champions League final that I experienced live.

After defeating the young Félix Auger Aliassime and buying the umpteenth ticket for the quarter-finals of Roland Garros, already mentioned with Novak Djokovic on Tuesday, Rafael Nadal commented on what had happened the night before, seeing his team , and at the same time reflected on its future. As he has insisted for a long time and more recently, given the scourge of his left foot, the tennis player stressed that he lives from day to day and that he does not know how long he will be able to compete. In this sense, he left an energetic sentence. “Maybe it was my last match at Roland-Garros,” he replied of his duel with the Serb. “Every time I go out to play here, I am aware that this may be my last game of the tournament,” he added in the form of a slogan he repeated several times this season and the previous one.

The day before, Nadal, 35, had traveled from the south to the north of Paris to watch Real Madrid win against Liverpool. And, given the chaos formed on the outskirts of Saint-Denis, he had to get out of the car on the highway to walk the last section and arrive on time. “Fortunately, some employees recognized me and I got to where I needed to go,” said the Majorcan, happy with his last outburst against the Canadian.

“The first set I didn’t play well, but then I had a good end of the second set and a very good third. Then I made a big mistake at the start of the fourth, when I was in control, and I suffered. But the most important thing is that I still played well in the fifth, with aggression and determination, and that’s the line I have to follow,” added the man from Manacor, much more enigmatic when asked about his physical condition, after 4 o ‘clock 20m wear against Aliassime.

“We don’t know how it will affect me. [el partido]“, he presented. “I am not fan assumptions and I try to live with what there is, and what there is is that a difficult game has been won and it is always positive for the head. The subject of physics, when I have finished my license we will talk more to understand many more things…”, he continued in the conference room; “But from a general point of view I’m fine, I don’t think this game affected me. We already know what’s there; now what could happen, we don’t know… Muscular and tired I’m fine. Happy because I was able to live one more day here and win another match in five sets, which isn’t bad at this stage of my career.”

whenever possible the last time

Sticking to his left foot, in which he has suffered from a chronic injury since the age of 18 -Müller-Weiss syndrome, irreparable and degenerative-, the Spaniard said that after what happened spent in Rome, where the pain reached an extremely high degree and penalized him in the home stretch of the fight against Denis Shapovalov, a relapse cannot be ruled out and, therefore, he can only enjoy the good gift .

“I don’t know what can happen in the near future with my career,” he said. “But I will continue to fight as much as possible to continue living the dream of continuing to play tennis,” continued Nadal, who pondered the question when in fact he had been asked if he trusted the organization to schedule the quarter-final. match against Djokovic in the day session.

“I prefer to play during the day. In the end, I know Roland Garros during the day and less at night; that’s how I’ve played there all my career and obviously I like to play better during the day; After that I don’t know what might happen next year and every time I go out to play here I’m aware that it might be my last game of the tournament. With everything I have on me, anything can happen”, he transmitted, in a speech that in some corners of the room was interpreted as a measure of pressure not to play in the end, as he did so in the second round against Corentin Moutet, since in this band his high ball lost a point of vigor due to the cold and humidity.

“I hope I can keep coming for many more years, but I’m aware that if things don’t go well, it could be my last game at Roland Garros, so I’d like to play during the day. from there the recipe is to play very well and with great determination. I don’t know if I will be able to do it. I don’t know if I have the basics to beat someone like Novak, but I will try . I will try to find all the possible solutions to give myself a chance”, decided the champion of the 21 majors.

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