Rafael Nadal’s 2022 has been a very positive year overall. The Majorcan tennis player achieved great results by winning major tournaments such as the Australian Open and Roland Garros, thus becoming the first (male) tennis player to win 22 Grand Slam titles.
In his private life, things also went very well with the Majorcan he had, with his wife Xisca, his first son, Rafael Nadal. An incredible year that Rafa could crown with another great result. After years of absence, Nadal has a great opportunity to return to number one in the world, unseating his current 19-year-old compatriot, Carlos Alcaraz, from this position.
The Murcian is currently out due to injury, so Rafa now has a great opportunity ahead of him. The tennis player debuted yesterday at the Turin ATP Finals, but an unexpected defeat has reduced his chances, and not a little. Before Turin Nadal had a chance to become number one even without winning the tournament, or at least Rafa could afford a group stage elimination before eventual success, but now Nadal has no ‘out’
There is only one way and he cannot afford any more mistakes. The Iberian debuted with a loss against the American Taylor Fritz, who won in two sets with a clear result of 7-6, 6-1. It is not an easy time for Rafa, who is coming off a bad losing streak and is certainly not in 100% form.
Now, to get back to number one, there’s only one way. Nadal has to win the ATP final in Turin and for that he has to win all the matches that he has at his disposal, starting with the next group matches against Casper Ruud and Felix Auger Aliassime.
Moya speaks about Nadal
Carlos Moya said that Rafael Nadal did not strike him as being more gifted than other players his age when he met him for the first time. “This one’s going to be good. By the age of twelve he was already one of the best in the world in his category.
That was when I met him for the first time,” Moya said. “He asked me if I’d warm up with him. I did, for about an hour. Now, to be honest, he did not strike me as being singularly more gifted than other players of his age.
I did see he was very combative, though what was more surprising was how incredibly shy he also was. We met and shook hands, but he didn’t even look at me and uttered barely a syllable,” Moya said.