AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 18, 2023

Rafael Nadal

Press Conference

M. McDONALD/R. Nadal

6-4, 6-4, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Bad luck, Rafa. We saw you were struggling out there. Can you just explain what was going on.

RAFAEL NADAL: Well, Mackenzie was playing at a great level of tennis, I think. A long time I was there, fighting, having my chances, but he was doing well. I was not doing that well. And then, yeah, at some point was the end. That's it.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Can I just clarify what part of the body did you hurt in the second set?

RAFAEL NADAL: The hip, yeah.

Q. Was it just in a sudden movement? Did it come on just suddenly or had you been feeling something before?

RAFAEL NADAL: It have been a couple of days like this, but nothing like today in that movement. I don't know. We're gonna start talking about that now, but I don't know what's going on, if it's muscle, if it's joint.

I have history in the hip that I had issues. I had to do treatments in the past, address a little. Was not this amount of problem. Now I feel I cannot move.

But I don't know till I do the test and all this stuff, I don't know. Is difficult to make resolution if it's a muscle, if it's the joint, if it's the cartilage. I don't know. Yeah, that's it.

By the way, I'm tired to talk about. I understand, but I lost the match. That's it. I tried till the end. I don't know if in good conditions I will win the match, I will have better chances without a doubt. But at the end, that's it.

No, I just tried. Was not possible.

Q. Can you walk us through when you left the court and got treatment, was there any discussion that if you kept playing you might do even more damage to it? Was that a concern? Did you consider stopping at any point?

RAFAEL NADAL: Yeah, I consider all the time stopping, but I didn't ask the physiotherapist at the end. I have to know myself. And I tried to keep playing without increasing the damage. No, that's it. I was not able to hit the backhand at all. I was not able to run for the ball. But I just wanted to finish the match. That's it.

Q. I remember at Wimbledon against Taylor Fritz your team were very keen for you to stop, and you carried on. I wonder if there was any sentiment from them today that they were telling you to stop or asking you to stop?

RAFAEL NADAL: I didn't ask them. I am old enough to take my own decisions. So I didn't want to retire, to be defending champion here. No, I didn't want to leave the court with a retirement. Better like this at the end. I lost. Nothing to say. Congratulate the opponent.

That's the sport at the same time. Just try your best till the end. Doesn't matter the chances that you have. That's the philosophy of the sport. That's the essence of the sport by itself. I tried to follow that during all my tennis career, and I tried of course to not increase the damage, because I didn't know what's going on.

Q. How disappointing is it, you worked very hard to get here?

RAFAEL NADAL: Yeah. Yeah, you can imagine. I don't need to talk and explain the feelings. It was not the right moment to have something like this now. At the end, you need to keep going, no? Sometimes it's frustrating. Sometimes it's difficult to accept. Sometimes you feel super tired about all this stuff in terms of injuries.

Yeah, can't come here or can't come here and say, lying, that the life is fantastic and staying positive and keep fighting. Not now. Tomorrow starts another day. Now it's a tough moment. It's a tough day, and you need to accept that, and keep going.

You know, in the end, I can't complain about my life at all. So just in terms of sports and in terms of injuries and tough moments, I mean, that's another one. Just can't say that I am not destroyed mentally at this time, because I will be lying.

Yeah, it's hard for me, you know. But let's see. I mean, hopefully is nothing too bad. In the end have been three positive weeks in terms of practice. So I really hope that that don't put me out of the court for a long time, because then it's tough to make all the recovery again. Is not only the recovery. It's all the amount of work that you need to put together to come back at a decent level.

So I went through this process too many times in my career, and I am ready to keep doing, I think, but that's not easy, without a doubt.

Q. How did you feel about the match and I guess your performance before you couldn't run? Why did you decide not to stop when I guess, as you said, you obviously couldn't hit a backhand, you couldn't run, what made you want to see it out until the end?

RAFAEL NADAL: I think the second part I explained before. First part was a very tough beginning of the match. The second set I think had big opportunity coming back for 3-2, Love-30. Then he break me. I don't know.

I think he was in a better position than me, without a doubt, but remained a lot to play, too. No, no, I think during the match every time I was a little bit closer and was understanding better the things that I had to do to overcome the situation.

Doesn't matter now (smiling). We can explain or talk or if, if. This word "if" I don't like a lot, because "if" in sport or in life in general don't make a lot of sense. In the end, I am out of the tournament. He's in the third round, so well done for him. He was playing at a great level of tennis. Life continues for me. Let's see how the situation evolve during the next couple of days.

Q. You mentioned you have had to come back from injuries a lot of times before. What gives you the motivation, the desire now to go back, to work hard, to come back fit, to compete again?

RAFAEL NADAL: It's a very simple thing: I like what I do. I like playing tennis. I know it's not forever. I like to feel myself competitive. I like to fight for the things that I have been fighting for almost half of my life or even more.

And that's it. It's not that complicated to understand, no? When you like do one thing, at the end, sacrifices always make sense, because the "sacrifice" word is not like this. When you do things that you like to do, at the end of the day, it's not a sacrifice. You are doing the things that you want to do.

Sacrifice is when you are doing things that you don't want to do, you know. And that was not my case. But say that, of course it's tiring and frustrating to be a lot of part of my tennis career on recovering process and trying to fight against all this stuff all the time.

But I accept it quite well during all my tennis career, and I was able to manage it well. But of course last seven months have been, again, another tough period of time, and that's it. I don't know what can happen in the future.

But yeah, I need to void again a long period of time outside, because if not, it's tough. If have been seven months playing almost nothing, and then if I have to spend long time again, then it's super difficult in the end to be in rhythm and to be competitive and to be ready for the fight for the things that I really want to fight. Let's see how the injury is, and then let's see how I can manage to follow the calendar.