Rafael Nadal had to deal with yet another setback. Returning to Spain after attending the Abi Dhabi exhibition, the former world number 1 discovered he had contracted the Coronavirus. In the following hours, the news of the positivity of Carlos Moya, Belinda Bencic and Ons Jabeur arrived.
It is not a lucky period for the Spanish phenomenon. In fact, the Majorcan played just seven official tournaments in 2021, still managing to put a couple of trophies on his beloved clay court. A serious foot injury prevented him from playing his cards to the fullest at Roland Garros, where he was beaten in the semifinals by Novak Djokovic.
Pain forced him to skip Wimbledon, the Tokyo Olympics and the US Open. Given the latest events, the 35-year-old from Manacor seems unlikely to travel to Melbourne to compete in the Australian Open. During the Abu Dhabi show, the 20-time Grand Slam champion looked very rusty and far from acceptable condition.
Interviewed by ‘Marca’, former ATP number 2 Alex Corretja wanted to cheer up his illustrious compatriot.
Corretja opens up on Nadal
“Rafael Nadal will retire being a winner, whatever happens. No matter how he was before, he has to assess how he wants to face what he has left from now on, but being Rafa you always have the feeling that he still has a bullet in his chamber to do something great,” said Corretja.
“You can never doubt special people like him, even if he comes from a very long injury and the process that he will have now will be difficult, I trust that there is still that great title to celebrate with him. A great title I mean a Grand Slam, because a Masters 1,000 more or less is not going to change anything,” added the former World No.
2. However, Corretja feels that it will be really difficult for Nadal to regain the No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings. “As for being number 1, it will be quite difficult because for that he needs to play a lot of tournaments, be very consistent, and that is no longer in his head.
He has already been number 1 many times, it does not matter the weeks, and that is secondary,” concluded Corretja. Tiley said, ” I have confidence in the coming of Rafa Nadal. Players who test positive now will stop being contagious after a while, and there will be no more problems then.
Never being positive is a good thing, but if you want to play the Australian Open, now is the time to catch the virus”.