Roland-Garros 2022 – Rafael Nadal: “Between a new foot or winning the final? I prefer to lose on Sunday”

That’s the magic of press conferences. Often, the questions follow one another, the answers too, without anything atypical disturbing a well-ordered ceremony. And then, sometimes, there is the one that hits the mark. The question is well shot, falls at the right time and the line that follows captures everyone’s attention.

“Rafa, let’s imagine…, began the Iberian journalist. You arrive at the hotel and it’s your birthday. There’s a lamp that you rub and a genie comes out. He says to you: ‘Rafa, I offer you a brand new foot, with a very beautiful scaphoid, in exchange for the final on Sunday? What do you answer?“The Spaniard didn’t hesitate for long.”I’d rather lose the final, no doubt“, he replied tac-au-tac.

“Doing sports with my friends is still an unknown”

All before developing. “My talk hasn’t changed and neither has the way I see lifehe continued. In the end, having a brand new foot could allow me to be happier on a daily basis. Winning is great, it gets you adrenaline pumping, but life goes on. And life is far more important than any title. For me, after the career I’ve had, I always give my best to have as many physical options as possible. But I still have my life ahead of me, I would like to be able to continue playing sports with my friends in an amateur way and, for the moment, it is still an unknown.”

Although he insisted on recalling that he felt good physically in this semi-final, where his difficulties were caused more by the wet playing conditions, he still recalled that his body, and a fortiori his foot, martyred him. “We must be realistic and assume the current limits“, he explained. The pain is always there and, unfortunately for him, the geniuses do not exist…