The Nadal announcement More than the news itself, the strange feeling in our stomachs that he’ll probably not play his best ever tournament is underwhelming Still, everything can still happen Here’s Rafael Nadal at the French Open, a thread 🧵
McEnroe compares Nadal to LeBron James, believes he could complete comeback and win 2024 French Open
ATPWednesday, 24 May 2023 at 23:00
John
McEnroe compared Rafael Nadal to basketball player LeBron James and expressed
his opinion that the Spaniard can win the French Open next year.
Rafael
Nadal's injuries have prevented him from fully participating in the tour in
recent years, and this 2023 has perhaps been the most challenging year for him.
He has not played any matches since the second round of the Australian Open and
had to skip the entire clay season. This will be the first time in 18 years
that he will not play in the French Open, a tournament he has already won 14
times.
When he
announced that he would not be playing in his favorite tournament, Nadal
expressed that he hopes 2024 will be his last year as a professional. John
McEnroe commented on the situation of the 22-time Grand Slam champion.
“It’s
unfortunate obviously,” said McEnroe
“But it
does open the door and I think it's inevitable, they say Father Time wins every
time, and that's what's happened here,”
The
American assured that Nadal will do everything possible to return to playing
his favorite tournaments next year and used the case of Andy Murray as an
example.
“I'm sure
that Rafa did everything he could to try to play and this is not the way he
wants it to end so that's why he's talked about playing next year,” he said.
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“Whatever
Rafa wants to do is something that we should respect and any player…you watch Murray play, he's not the same player that he was and not nearly as
highly ranked, but he wants to go out on his own terms and I'm sure it'll be
the same with Rafa.”
McEnroe
commented on the similarities he sees between the Spaniard and LeBron James,
and he assured that Nadal has a good chance of winning the upcoming Roland
Garros.
I would
never say that he couldn't win at Roland-Garros. Anyone that's done what he's
done, as long as he stepped foot on a court would have a great chance.
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“He reminds
me a lot of Lebron James. LeBron James is a little bit older and is part of a
team, but I think he proved he was still a fantastic player.
“But you
know, maybe at the end of those [season-end] games he got a little tired
because too much was expected from him. And at some point, that's what's gonna
happen to Rafa, it happens to everybody, you're going to be asking too much,”
the American concluded.
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