‘A bygone era’: Rafael Nadal resigned to no longer fighting for world number 1 spot

Rafael Nadal, absolute record holder for Grand Slam victories after his 21st title acquired in Australia last month, resigns himself however to no longer fighting for the place of world N.1 at 35 years old.

The Spaniard, now 5th in the ATP rankings, easily qualified for the second round of the ATP 500 tournament in Acapulco, Mexico on Tuesday, but does not believe he will be able to dethrone Serbian Novak Djokovic or his probable successor, Russian Daniil Medvedev.

“I think that is now a bygone era. My physical problems unfortunately prevent me from being able to hope to become number one again.“, he regretted in a press conference on Tuesday after his victory against the American Denis Kudla.

Nadal became N.1 for the first time on August 18, 2008 and has not had this honor since January 10, 2020. However, he remains in the top five in the world, currently 150 points behind 4th, the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, and 1,587 points ahead of the 6th, the Italian Matteo Berrettini.

“I sometimes felt in a position to be number one but my physical condition did not allow it. Today, my goals are different, I will not pursue this goal, it would be a mistake to persevere“, underlined the Mallorcan.

Before his victory in Australia, he had been sidelined for more than four months for treatment of a left foot injury and contracting the coronavirus late last year. “I haven’t played much for years“, recalled Nadal. “People ask me if I’m going to reduce the number of my appearances even more but if I reduce them even more, I might as well quit tennis“, he observed.

“This tournament (that of Acapulco) is one of those where historically I had good feelings“, he recalled.