Rafael Nadal ‘will try to be at Roland Garros’ claims Grand Slam winning coach
Rafael Nadal has been out of action since January, and his coach Carlos Moya has given an insight into the Spaniard’s day-to-day recovery schedule as well as an update on whether he will be able to play in Rome and Paris.
Nadal picked up a grade two tear to his psoas at the Australian Open and has been away from the ATP tour ever since, despite the original recovery time supposedly only going to be six to eight weeks.
And Moya, who began coaching Nadal back in 2016 and has added eight Grand Slam titles to the Mallorcan’s trophy cabinet, has spoken to L’Equipe about the 22-time Grand Slam champion’s recovery.
“Currently, we work more or less an hour and a half a day and continue to improve day by day. It is not even a matter of whether you are an optimist or a pessimist, just that you observe the progress every day,” said the former No.1.
Nadal admitted that he was ‘not ready’ to play at some of his favourite tournaments on the dirt, including home events in Barcelona and Madrid, and Moya has commented on whether the 36-year-old is likely to pull out of any more.
“Of course these are difficult times because we have missed the tournaments we love, but Rafa is a warrior, with an indestructible mind and when the time comes to return, he will be very motivated,” said Moya.
The 1998 Roland Garros champion continued, “At the moment it is impossible to define the calendar, but the goal is to go to Rome. If that is not possible, we will try to be at Roland Garros.”
Nadal has only played four matches this season, winning just one, and Moya described his ‘sadness’ over not being able to play a match on his favourite surface yet.
“We are a little sad that he hasn’t played on clay yet,” said Moya. “He is the worst, but we try to encourage him and are always optimistic. I think it’s an urban legend that Nadal needs a lot of matches to be ready, when he came back from injury he always achieved good results.”
These comments from Moya come days after his uncle and former coach Toni Nadal claimed that Nadal would definitely be playing Roland Garros this year.
Rafael Nadal record at Roland Garros
Nadal has only ever lost 45 career matches on clay, with a win record of 91.3% on the surface.
His record at Roland Garros is even more impressive, as he has a 97.4% win record, with only three defeats in his 115 matches.
Here are Nadal’s three rare defeats at the clay major:
2009 – Nadal lost in the fourth round to Robin Soderling (23), 2-6 7-6(2) 4-6 6(2)-7
2015 – Nadal lost in the quarter-final to Novak Djokovic (1), 5-7 3-6 1-6
2021 – Nadal lost in the semi-final to Novak Djokovic (1), 6-3 3-6 6(4)-7 2-6
Rafael Nadal will be hoping to not add to this list of defeats if he takes to the Paris major that begins on the 28th May.
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