Nadal feels ready for the end of year World Tour Finals
World number 1 player Rafael “Rafa” Nadal was forced to drop out of last week’s ATP event, the Paris Masters, due to a troublesome shoulder injury which resulted in his exclusion from the event.
The top-ranked player has a long history of injuries and physical problems which, to some extent, limit his potential and cause him to lose matches and drop out of tournaments which have his name written on the trophy already.
After this injury, many fans and spectators were fearful that Rafa would be unable to compete in the highly anticipated ATP World Tour Finals, to be held in London later this month.
However, the World Number 1 held a news conference to clear up any doubts and announce that he would indeed be participating in the event, where he will be the first seed. Nadal told the press present at this conference that his dropping out was a result
of a minor case of tendinitis in his left shoulder.
He dropped out of the year’s final Masters event in order to avoid the risk of sustaining an even more serious injury right before the London tournament. This was also a precautionary method taken to ensure that the World Number 1 is present to participate
at the first Majors tournament of the New Year, the Australian Open in January.
He says he has sought medical advice on this, telling reporters, “I'm fine. I went to the doctor and he told me the injury could worsen if I was playing. This is the end of the season and all those matches took a toll on my shoulder”.
The top player told the media that he will require a week of intensive, full training in order to be fully prepared for the finals, which will last from 21st to 28th November. However, the player has won three Grand Slams this year,
the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open to complete a career Grand Slam, and with these victories, he has clinched the end of year World Number 1 position.
Rafael Nadal has played in 33 of the 35 Masters 1000 tournaments previously held. He expressed great disappointment over his inability to attend the Paris Masters, where he reached the finals three years ago. He says, “It's the last Masters 1000 of the year
and for sure one of my favourites in the world. It was not an easy decision but I played all others Masters 1000 and all Grand Slams this season”.
The Spaniard is also confident about his performance in London, although he acknowledged that it has always been his most difficult surface, where it is hardest for him to win. This statement is proved by his abysmal performance in last year’s ATP finals,
where he was eliminated from the round robin play after he lost three consecutive matches without taking a single set for himself.
However, he seems to be determined to redeem himself this year, saying, “I will have a special motivation, and I'm going to give everything I can to play well here. I want to improve the image of last year. I'll try to win”.
Nadal has been out of competition since his third-round loss to Jurgen Melzer, at the Shanghai Masters in mid-October. He later stated that he was still feeling some fatigue from his very illustrious season, but he does not think that changing his season
is the solution.
He justified this decision by saying, “Playing less is almost impossible if you want to stay on top. After that, I think you can change a few things, but not many. It worked well for me in 2010 and I will more or less try to stick to the same program next
year”.
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