“I wanted to show myself that I won by chance”

Seven days. That’s the time left for Rafa Nadal he argued final competition as a professional player of his profession. It is the real icing on the cake to a career full of success, since then The Davis Cup is one of the events for which the Balearic Islands have always shown the greatest respect. Put on the Spain shirt to hang up your racket and, why not, fight to pick up a new one A salad bowlit will be the ultimate challenge of a player who, if he is characterized by something, is because of his competitiveness.

Not too long ago, Nadal testified: “My body doesn’t respond to me the way I need it to.”. What Nadal was trying to explain was that his head was still competitive, but that his physique does not allow him to perform with the demands he asks of himself. This hinders him, because not only does he prevent him from reaching balls or finishing plays with the solution he did before, but he even you can’t train at the level you’d like. And it hurts to stop seeing yourself as the fighter you are.

So, a few hours before the last official competition of the best Spanish athlete of all time, many athletes have started to say goodbye to him. Tennis will be an orphan without Nadalwell His farewell leaves Novak Djokovic as the last representative of the top three in racket history. And many players start to remember news about the manacori, an incredible player who was always a hero on the court… even when he was just training.

A few months ago, Nadal’s contemporary announced his retirement. The Uruguay Pablo Cuevashampered by injuries, he had to leave tennis after winning 15 ATP tournaments throughout his life. Shortly after his blessing, Cuevas offered an interview in The country of Uruguay to reveal what his new life was like, what his tennis career was like and even little-known news. One of them, with Nadal as the main figure.

Cuevas said Nadal is one of the most competitive tennis players he has ever met and not just at matches. So, he said that during a competition in Hamburg He called to play a training match after a preparation session. The Chilean hit it and Nadal didn’t handle it well. So much so that, in the following months, when the two would be at the same time in the same tournament, He tried to show him that it was a stroke of luck.

“The first time we trained, in Hamburg, I won the set we played. From there, He invited me to train over the next six months about 25 hours.with the intention of winning the set and show me it was a coincidence“, confirmed the Uruguayan with a smile on his face. And, besides, Cuevas had someone to compare with him, because he also worked several times with Roger Federer, a very different player from Nadal in training.

“The Rafa thing had nothing to do with what was happening with Roger, that you could play ten sets with him and win ten of them, because He was working on other things and was not the least interested in the outcome.. Nadal was training that competitive side all the time. It didn’t matter how he hit, The main goal was always to win no matter how much I was using something else.“, admitted the Uruguayan during the interview.

This news perfectly shows Nadal’s competitive level that he did not want to lose even in training, an athlete who has always surpassed himself thanks to his demands and his ability to never give up. These are the last days to enjoy a player who changed the history of tennis and who can boast of being the best athlete in the history of Spain. And many tennis players suffered over several decades.