"I will do my best to try to start the clay season":Rafael Nadal striving for clay court season, not predicting after latest withdrawals

Rafael Nadal has set out his stall ahead of the clay court season to be ready ahead of the Monte-Carlo Masters. Albeit in the case of the Spaniard, he is quick to make it a 'try his best' over he is certain.

Nadal takes into account all of his recent injury woes and in particular attempting to play multiple tournaments including Australian Open, Doha and Indian Wells and having to withdraw last minute. Of course a surface he loves on clay, but he is there with added caution ahead of the next few weeks. He said that he is feeling good though, but that he won't know himself until he is back on court.

His only tournament this season has been the Brisbane International in January where he lost to Jordan Thompson in the third round and suffered a micro-tear in his thigh which took him out of the reckoning for further tournaments and aside from the Netflix Slam exhibition, he hasn't played since.

“I will do my best to try to start the clay season, which is my goal, I am working for that and striving for that goal, but I don’t dare to say anything about what might happen because lately it has been difficult for me to make predictions, unfortunately,” said Nadal as per Spanish media outlet Marca.

“I’ve not stopped training at any time. I’m trying all the time. I feel fine, I just haven’t managed to follow the schedule I would have liked to. Hopefully things can change, but as you can imagine I can’t say because I don’t know myself,” the 22-time Grand Slam champion commented.