"Every time I come to Paris I don’t think I’m going to win" - Nadal following 13h triumph at Roland Garros

Following his 13th triumph at the Roland Garros, Rafael Nadal spoke to ATPTour.com about how he approaches the tournament and struggles he experienced.

Every time players come to Paris for the Roland Garros, there is one huge favourite to win it all. And he almost does when he has triumphed 13 times in the previous 16 years. However, after his last triumph, Rafael Nadal admitted that he doesn't always think he's going to win.

"Every time I come to Paris I don’t think I’m going to win. I arrive excited that I might do it, but knowing that the most logical outcome is that I don’t. Winning is not normal, and I am always very aware of that," Nadal admitted. "As I said from the first day, this year was the most adverse Roland Garros I have played in, first because of the conditions and second because my preparation was practically non-existent in terms of tournaments."

"On a social level, we’ve been living with continuous problems. On a personal level, it’s a reality that after the lockdown I went through a bad time, my body did not respond in the best way possible," said Nadal. "I had a lot of days where I could only train very little, with unpleasant feelings in my body. All of that, together with training without clear goals, makes the problem worse."

"I had the right people by my side. They pushed me when necessary and they gave me the freedom to enjoy other things when I really needed to. We’ve had to make difficult decisions, like not going to New York. Everything is good or bad based on the final result. Right now, it seems like it was successful because I won at Roland Garros, if I had lost maybe it wouldn’t have been so good," Nadal said. "That’s the reality of sport, a totally result-based world. The decisions were made consensually, analysing everything. Beyond the result, personally, I’m very happy with the steps we took."