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ROLAND GARROS

May 25, 2018

Rafael Nadal

Paris, France

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English, please.

Q. You have a 79-2 record here at Roland Garros. What is it about Roland Garros that brings out the best in your game?
RAFAEL NADAL: Oh, I am not sure at all, but being honest and talking about the true, about the situation, is about the clay that I had a lot of success on clay during my career, and here is the most important tournament and in the same time playing best of five. So that's the difference.

Q. Your victory last year and maybe this year would be more beautiful for you if Roger were here?
RAFAEL NADAL: Exactly the same (smiling). Being honest. Exactly the same.

No, no, is not -- I cannot say that the victory of Federer when I was injured or victory of Novak when I was injured is not that beautiful. Would not be fair for my side. When I am winning and other players are not playing for some reason, that's all.

Is bad news for the tournament but not for myself if I win. For me, the victory means exactly the same.

Q. How do you feel physically coming into this tournament after your season on the clay?
RAFAEL NADAL: Good. Of course after very tough beginning of the season with two injuries in the same place. Is true since I came back I played well, played a lot of matches and having good success since I came back in Davis Cup.

But every tournament is different, and here we are to try our best, to have good days of practice before the tournament start, and try to be very competitive for the beginning.

Q. How important was it for you psychologically to win in Rome after Madrid and then especially the way you won in the final?
RAFAEL NADAL: Yeah. Everybody knows that Madrid is a tournament, is the most different tournament on clay of the clay court season.

At the same time is the most difficult one, because the ball flies a lot. This altitude is different story, no?

But of course I lost, and was a loss, and a match that I didn't play very well. So of course was important for me to stay there mentally, to be ready for Rome, and that's what I did. I think I played a good tournament in Rome, winning some important matches, and at the same time going through situation that I didn't went through during the whole clay court season, because I didn't lose a set during Davis Cup, Monte-Carlo, Barcelona, and in Madrid I won two matches straight sets and then I lost in straight sets. Was not moments of that pressure or that, you know, moments that you need to be there, you need to play well, no?

So Rome I had plenty of these moments, and I came back after a set against Fognini. Then I played very tough first set against Novak in that semifinals and in the final having a little bit of everything, but coming back, too, that's situations that helps to keep going, to keep being confident, and to get used to play this difficult moments that the normal thing is you have these difficult moments in our sport.

Q. (Question about Djokovic coming back.)
RAFAEL NADAL: I prefer to be in that final, but I have plenty of work to do, so I really don't believe that is the right moment to talk about finals, no? The tournament we are in we are Friday before the tournament start, so if we are there, we gonna have the right press conference to talk about there, hopefully, but...

Q. (Off microphone.)
RAFAEL NADAL: Novak is one of the best players of our history of this sport.

My answer is he's not coming back; he's there always. Sometimes when you come back from injuries is difficult to play that well from the beginning, but he played a great event in Rome, and is no doubt one of the candidates to win here.

Q. So first of all, I come from a part of India where your academy has made a huge difference for underprivileged kids. I wanted to thank you for that. Coming to the question, tennis has evolved a lot in terms of the pace and the technology that's coming into the racquets and so on. How do you think clay court tennis has evolved over the past 10 years as you have been playing? What are some of the adjustments you keep making every year which is new to keep up with the advancements?
RAFAEL NADAL: Things doesn't change that quick. That's my feeling, no?

Of course there is a change during this period of time, the way that the people play is a little bit different.

But the numbers says that the players that were 10 years ago on the top are still competitive to keep winning important things.

So there is two options: That these players had the ability to adapt to everything that happened or things didn't change that much.

Q. Over the past years there have been several new players that have established themselves as very seriously within the top 10. Do you think it's finally time for the younger men to grab control of the game?
RAFAEL NADAL: We'll see. I cannot predict what's going on. But of course there is a generation of players with a lot of talent, a great potential to become big stars of this sport. Let's see how the things happens the next couple of months or the next couple of years.

Q. How important is for you the No. 1 ranking nowadays? It's changing quite often, and do you think it's exciting to see so many changes at the top, or you don't care too much?
RAFAEL NADAL: I don't think much about that. I answered this, not this question, but a question similar to this before the final of Rome that somebody asked me about, If you win tomorrow you come back to No. 1, and I said, yes, but my only and real motivation is win the title in Rome. So that's my real feelings, no?

My feelings is of course better to be No. 1 than be No. 2 or No. 5, but my feelings and what really makes me happy, and that's the most important thing is feel myself competitive to play all events that I want to play and to feel myself really to have success in these important events.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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