Nadal Denies Reports Of Not Playing IW/Miami; Marca Sticks With The Story
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Continuing our daily saga of updating Rafa’s knee situation: Rafael Nadal and his camp came out yesterday and denied reports that he was not going to play the hardcourt events in Indian Wells and Miami (plus the NYC exo). Earlier Marca came out with the story that to save his knees Rafa would not return to hardcourts until the summer. After a win last night in Acapulco, Rafa responded.
“My intention is to go to Indian Wells,” Nadal told the AP. “This is the truth because I love this tournament and the priority is to play. But if I don’t feel comfortable playing and decide to wait to play on the hard courts, that’s how it will be and I’ll rest for the clay-court season (in Europe). But today I can’t answer.
“I said the truth. I don’t know if I’m going to go or not,” Nadal repeated. “It will depend on how I feel every day and every week.”
As for his knee, Nadal sounded optimistic, for now.
“Even when the knee is perfect I had some days better than others,” he said. “Right now I have had three days in which the knee has felt fine and that makes me happy, that we’re going in the right direction.”
And that makes me happy, too. Unfortunately, though, the story will continue since it’s clear Rafa isn’t committing to anything beyond Acapulco just yet, so be prepared for more rumors until his tournament is finished there.
And despite the denials, Marca hasn’t changed it’s tune one bit from what I can tell. The initial story that created this controversy is still up on their website with no update, so that means they are sticking with what they first said, and that is Rafa won’t be playing next month in the U.S.
I still think there is a slim chance he plays NYC and then IW, but Miami is looking very, very doubtful. Rafa could easily fly from Mexico to NYC, pick up his bag of cash for playing DelPo and then head to IW and train for a few days to get a better gauge of his knee, then decide.
Stay tuned of course! I’m sure there’ll be more to come. Although I’m starting to feel the onset of Rafa Knee Fatigue Syndrome (RKFS). Perhaps I (k)need to take it easy.
On the courts today, all three of the big names are in action. Nadal plays Alund in Acapulco (recall this Alund took Nadal to three in the Sao Paulo semis) while in Dubai Djokovic and Federer take on Spaniards.
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