ROLEX PARIS MASTERS

November 3, 2022

Rafael Nadal

Press Conference

T. PAUL/R. Nadal

3-6, 7-6, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Bad luck, Rafa. Not to take anything away from Tommy, but we saw you were struggling a little bit at the end. Can you explain what was going on.

RAFAEL NADAL: It's okay, no. All the credit to Tommy. Things that happens sometimes. But no, it's good, no? I think he played aggressive, a lot of great shots. I had my match in that second set with set and break. I played terrible game there. Yeah, I didn't deserve the victory playing that bad in that key moment, no.

Until that moment was okay, a good match for me. Knowing that is my first match since a while. Then this surface especially you cannot make mistakes with your serve.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. As you were just saying, this being your first match since that doubles at Laver Cup, was there any sort of distraction about following, you know, the events of the last few weeks or anything like that? How different did it feel, if it did feel different?

RAFAEL NADAL: No, a lot of things going on the last couple of months, without a doubt. But, yeah, we are always ready to find excuses, but at the end, it's always the same. You play well, you win; you don't, you lose. And today for moments, putting everything in a pack, I was playing quite well.

Then at the right moment, I didn't make the right things, no? So that's it. He played well. He's having a great year.

Yeah, credit to him too that he played with the right intensity, and right concentration and going for the shots, no? I think I was doing that for a while, but then I was not able to keep doing.

Q. What can you do, what can you change maybe for the Masters? Are you going to be there in Turin?

RAFAEL NADAL: I hope, yeah (smiling).

Yes, I hope, if nothing happens, I hope to be there. No, I'm excited about playing, even if haven't been the perfect couple of months for me, of course. But, yeah, nothing to lose. After a good year, going there, just trying my best. At the end I need days on the tour, you know. It's true that for the last five months I didn't spend enough days on the tour.

I don't even say competing on a tennis court. I say on the tour. Practicing with the guys. That's what I need. I gonna try. Nothing happen, if I feeling okay, to be there a little bit earlier than usual and have some practices.

Just give myself a chance to enjoy another World Tour Finals, no? You never know when gonna be the last, especially at my age. So I gonna give my best to enjoy this one, and then next years of course I gonna fight to be back there.

Yeah, I need to put everything in perspective, and just I gonna keep trying my best, and I need to be healthy enough to spend days on the tour. That's it.

Q. You were just saying about the Tour Finals. It's the only thing you have never won. Does that sort of thing come into your mind? In these next couple of weeks where you say you really need to be back on the tour, practicing, all that, what will you actually do? Who could you work with or practice with leading into the Tour Finals, as well?

RAFAEL NADAL: No, I don't know. Of course, I mean, for me difficult to imagine now arriving in the World Tour Finals in shape, in enough good shape to win a tournament like this one that I didn't win during all my tennis career.

To play against the best players of the world since the first, since the first day, you need to be there and the rhythm, conditions, that will not happen. So the only thing I can do is try to be there earlier, have some good practice with the guys and then give my best on the court, no, and hopefully the level of tennis will be there, and the body too.

Yeah, the match of today have been positive things, then some negative things. Yeah, I can't predict much, and I honestly don't think much about what I have to do or what I don't have to do to be really there, no? I just think about be better, I need to improve a couple of things, and then I need to play sets against the best players, to feel myself again competitive against everyone.

That's it. I'm gonna try to make that happen. And if not, you know what, gonna be next year, and I gonna try to have the best of seasons possible to start strong.