Rafael Nadal, the Spanish maestro, has dominated the sport for over a decade but now he’s ‘100% ready’ to accept the dominance of the next generation. The Spaniard claims not to go down without a fight.
The Spaniard along with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic is known as the ‘Big Three’ of tennis. The trio has been the best player and won multiple tournaments since turning professional.
=Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer are the “Big Three” of the tennis, who dominated the courts over a decade.
However, the veterans are already in their 30s and having a hard time against the new players. For the past few tournaments, Nadal and the other two maestros are losing to the younger players. Thus, the Spaniard is accepting the truth that his reigning days are finite and soon will be replaced by the next generation. But, Rafa loves the sport and thus wants to keep playing and he will keep fighting the youngsters, even if he can’t defeat them.
Rafael Nadal reported in a recent interview, “I think we [himself, Djokovic and Nadal] are 34, 34, 39. That’s something usual that nothing is forever. You need to be ready to accept.”
“It is normal that after almost 20 years on the tour there is another generation that are winning tournaments,” he added.
Rafael Nadal, the Spanish veteran, left the 2021 Madrid Open with a ‘ugly feeling’ after the loss against Alexander Zverev of Germany.
Nadal further exerted, “We have been achieving almost every single important event for the last 19 years. Nothing strange. 100% ready to accept that. But I am going to keep fighting.”
The 34-year-old Spaniard only won a single title this year at Barcelona Open against the Greek star, Stefanos Tsitsipas. However, the ‘King of Clay’ failed to win the next tournament in the clay court of Madrid, losing to Alexander Zverev with a score of 4-6, 4-6.
Ready for Rome 🇮🇹
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— ATP Tour (@atptour) May 10, 2021
Currently, the Espanyol ranks third on the ATP Rankings next to Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev. Further, the World No.3 is currently playing in the Italian Open and will face the Italian prodigy, Jannik Sinner in the first round. Further, Medvedev and the World No.1 is also playing in the tournament, thus Nadal needs to pull up his socks.
Rafael Nadal is already began gearing up for the upcoming French Open and is aiming for his 14th Grand Slam title on the clay court. Therefore, Rafa will even fight the younger generation and thus, he said, “That means that in three weeks there is another Grand Slam that I like to play. I am going to fight to try to play well there.”
