Rafa Nadal trained for the sixth consecutive day at Wimbledon under the watchful eye of Gerard Piqué, who stopped by the All England Club with his sons Sasha and Milan Piqué to see the tennis player train. Then the Blaugrana central defender greeted him and his team.
Piqué was not the only spectator. A large group of people gathered on the Aorangi courts to see him, including the US Open champion tennis player who had been watching him for a few minutes before she started training.
Nadal, who returned to training in the afternoon as well as on Sunday and Monday, to put the finishing touches on his preparation for next Tuesday's premiere against Argentine Francisco Cerúndolo, spent two hours on the court with server Jiri Vesely, before to attend to the media in the press room.
There he stated that he is confident of being competitive at the start of Wimbledon after six days of training. "I'm enjoying playing on grass three years later. If I'm here it's because things are going well, if not, I wouldn't be. I'm happy," said the Spaniard, who did not play in 2020 due to the tournament being suspended due to the pandemic and in 2021 for rest after Roland Garros.
This time Nadal's roadmap leads him to play his first match on Tuesday, against Argentine Francisco Cerúndolo, without having played official matches on this surface, but with two exhibitions in Hurlingham in his pocket. "I don't know how I get there really, it's hard to predict. It's probably the hardest tournament to predict. It's a tricky surface where you need to spend days on it. I haven't played anything for three years, this makes it extra tricky. Memory It is important, the most recent memory that you have helps on the surface. Within what is possible it has been a logical week, with better moments and worse moments, clearly in an ascending line, "he said.
And he added: "I have trained a lot. Yesterday I made a training disaster, I woke up with tired eyes, but then I played well. Today I also trained well. The most important thing is that the bad moments on the court are shorter and shorter. The matches They have gone quite well for me, I have trained with demanding people. I am confident that I will be competitive".
Nadal was tired of talking about his foot and the problems he has had with it and said that during the tournament he hopes to talk only about tennis. "I can walk normally every day, when I wake up I don't have that pain that I had for a year and a half. In training in general I have been better. In the last few weeks I haven't had one of these days that hurts terrible. In general, I'm positive".
Regarding the first six months of the season, Nadal was clear: "The past is passing and sport and life go by very quickly. I don't really think about what you have achieved, it is something that has happened, that is going to be in my museum for the rest of my life, it makes me proud of it. The first six months have not been easy even with all that I have achieved by the foot. I would not say that it is a drama, there are other worse things in life , here we are only playing tennis. It has been hard to enter the court with pain and not knowing if I was going to be able to finish the training session or the match".
In addition, Nadal spoke about the conditions of the tournament and his preferences regarding the balls used in the English championship. "The ball is very heavy, it is a different ball from what we are used to. These years it is a little hollower than ten years ago. The tendency is to play with more punctured balls. It seems to me a mistake from a tennis point of view . All the points are played the same. What I don't like about the change in trend is that the points are repeated too much. People hit from anywhere because there is no feeling of failure. Here this feeling is multiplied, "explained the Spaniard.
"With such a heavy ball, it's important to move well, to be able to position yourself well. Then it's a court that doesn't give you much thought, when the ball comes to you you have to hit with determination, if you think too much they attack you or you make mistakes. gives the automatisms and the confidence", he sentenced.
