MUTUA MADRID OPEN

April 27, 2024

Rafael Nadal

Press Conference

R. NADAL/A. de Minaur

7-6, 6-3

(Questions in Spanish.)

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. Just curious how important was it for you to perform at this level today and last for over two hours on court? And how different did you feel compared to last week against him?

RAFAEL NADAL: Well, yeah, very important for me to be able to compete the whole match with a good level of tennis, and the body holded well for a little bit over two hours. That's important for me.

It was a great test, and now let's see how I wake up tomorrow. That's the thing. So super happy. I never will have the chance to thank enough all the people here in Madrid for everything that they gave to me during all my tennis career, no, and today was a very emotional one.

Q. You said at the beginning of the week you said if you felt the way you did that day you wouldn't play the French Open probably. I know it's a long way off and you're not going to make a decision yet, but does today's performance encourage you that you could be ready?

RAFAEL NADAL: No idea. I think last few days my body feelings improved a little bit, but not sure yet.

I mean, I understand for you sometimes it's difficult -- I mean, not for you, for the people who are not in my team -- it's difficult to understand some things, but for me, Roland Garros is the most important tournament of my tennis career, no, and all the things that I lived there, enjoyed there, stays in my heart forever.

So is not a thing about losing or winning. It's about going on court there with the feeling that I can fight and I can be competitive and, you know, let's go on court and dream about what can happen, no?

So if I am not able to go on court and dream about even if it's the minimum, minimum percentage, for me don't make sense to go on court, no? I prefer to stay with all the amazing memories that I have.

I want to be there, and even losing, but, you know, go on court with the chance to dream about something important, if that happens, I gonna be on court. If I am not allowed to make that happen, even if it's a super, super small percentage, I probably will not go on court. That's the feeling, and it's best-of-five, so it's a different story.

Q. What can you tell us about the sort of process of evaluation that you're going to go through over the next couple of weeks? Is it just sort of matches, or is it mainly whether you can tolerate pain, or is it the feeling that you can compete and sort of really push it to the edge? How do you come to that conclusion? Because you have come back from some injuries before in the past, so you probably have some experience with this, I guess.

RAFAEL NADAL: I come to that conclusion if I go on a tournament like Roland Garros with the hope, with the real hope that my body gonna hold the demand that I gonna have to be competitive. That's all.

It's not about playing better, playing worse. It's about going on court with the real hope. Then anything can happen. But before the tournament have the hope that I can play and I can play for the few days in a row fighting for the balls that I need to fight to be through.

If I have this hope, I gonna be on court. If I know before the tournament that my body will not hold for the whole tournament, I will not be on court. That's the way that I see it.

So next couple of weeks are so important to see if that's a real possibility or not.

Q. Do you feel much pain at the moment on the court because of your previous injuries?

RAFAEL NADAL: No. Not today, no. Last weeks haven't been easy, but the last few days, no, small issues, but for the moment, I was able to control more or less, but that doesn't mean that things gonna be well in two days. I need to check how I wake up tomorrow morning, so let's analyze.

I mean, today is about every day is a test, you know, and because I am going through things that I haven't gone through for almost two years, you know. That's the thing.

In some way, that's why I can't be always super positive, because if I will know that my body will hold well today, gonna be a super-happy day, because it will have been a step forward, and step forward is always super important.

But for me it's more important know that after today is more again than win or lose is I can go on court and try to do something similar today or just fight for the match again. That's the thing. And I can't be sure about that, because today was the most important test since I came back.