ATP Paris-Bercy: Rafael Nadal and fatherhood - "All changes are difficult"
Rafael Nadal will not only play his first individual match since the US Open in Paris-Bercy, the Spaniard will also serve as a father for the first time in the French capital. A change.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit:
Nov 01, 2022, 07:20 pm
Rafael Nadal is back in Paris. And he announced this, after the Australian Open anyway almost befitting his status, with a word card Instagram post - and with a wink emoji. For a long time it was uncertain whether the bull from Manacor would return to the ATP tour this year. Because: a lot has changed in the life of the 22-time Grand Slam winner recently. Only a few weeks ago, the Mallorcan became a father for the first time.
And paternity, it's good for him, the Spaniard left no doubts about that in the run-up to the tournament. "To be honest, it's always hard to leave home (laughs). It's funny, it's really incredible how you can miss him completely after just three weeks of knowing him," said the Spaniard. For whom, of course, a lot has changed since the birth of his son. Not an easy situation for a player like Nadal, who stands for continuity like no other.
Nadal is not fighting for number one
"It's a new experience, all the changes are difficult in this life and you have to adapt. But the thing is that nowadays we are lucky with the technology, we can have video calls whenever we want, it helps us a lot", emphasized the 36-year-old, who of course wants to build up form in Paris-Bercy in order to be able to claim the long-awaited triumph at the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time.
In any case, not a dedicated goal, as Nadal became very clear, is number one in the world rankings: "I'm proud of all the things I've achieved and can still achieve in 2022. To put it bluntly: I understand that this is a talking point for you, but I'm not fighting to be number one, just to be competitive in every tournament I play," said Nadal, who meets Tommy Paul in the second round.
Of course, those moments when Nadal held the number one position were something special. But today the priorities are different: "It's something I said a long time ago: I'm not fighting to be number one anymore. I've done it in the past, I have that goal in my career achieved a couple of times," said the Mallorcan. "It's hard to be number one in the world but I'm happy to be in a position that shows that when I've played I've been really good."