Rafael Nadal: I Don’t Know If I Will Play The French Open, If I Do I Will Fight And Try My Best

Following a one-sided 6-1, 6-3 loss today at the Rome Masters to Hubert Hurkacz, Rafael Nadal still won’t confirm if he’ll play the French Open.

The French will require the Spaniard to play best-of-5 at the event he’s won 14 times. It would seem farfetched he wouldn’t play, but Nadal won’t commit.

“You can see today on the court how difficult is,” Nadal said That’s the answer, no? Yeah, that’s an option that can happens today and you need to accpt.

“Now is two ways. Probably one is to say, Okay I am not ready, I am not playing enough well. Then is the moment to take a decision in terms of not playing Roland Garros.

“Another is accept how I am today and work the proper way to try to be in a different way in two weeks.

“The decision as you can imagine, is not clear in my mind today. But if I have to say what’s my feeling and if my mind is closer one way or the other way, I going to say be in Roland Garros and try my best. Physically I have some issues, but not probably yet enough to say not playing in the most important event of my tennis career.

“Let’s see what’s going on, how I feel myself mentally tomorrow, after tomorrow and in one week. If I feel ready, I am going to try to be there and fight for the things that I have been fighting the last 15 years. If now, seems impossible.”

Nadal hasn’t played a best-of-5 match since the 2023 Australian Open, and hasn’t played at the French in two years.

Nadal, though, did win some matches in the last month and while a title run in Paris seems out of the question, at least he could go a few rounds.

Nadal finally added that this might not have been his last Rome event. He wouldn’t rule it out. You can see why:

Roma abbraccia il Re #Nadal pic.twitter.com/rVspi3PiYC

— Giorgio Spalluto (@GeorgeSpalluto) May 11, 2024