Before the withdrawal


El Pais interview

INTERVIEW: RAFAEL NADAL Tennis world 'number three' and six straight times winner of the tournament in Monte Carlo
"I have nothing to prove"

Question. Did it take a weight off.
Answer: The weight lifts off when you feel like you're playing at the level necessary to win and that I have felt since the beginning of 2010. What happens is that once a bit of a lack of calm, another by a bit of bad luck and the other for any injury, I could not get it. When one is close and fails ... When the same situation is presented again, you have a little more anxiety than usual. These are difficult times one must overcome them. And to surpass them one must pass bad moments.

P. Why? By the end of 2009 you passed several. And before, in an interview granted to this newspaper, you said that the difference among the very good and the champions was a sixth gear in the difficult moments.

Then I was missing the sixth, fifth and fourth as well. One must be realistic. The results were good: semifinals at the U.S. Open with torn abdominal, final in Shanghai ... in a surface that is not easy. Mental level had remained high. That was not what I need. I had made few errors. That is what causes one to be above. To that end I spent all last year. A fight in every game knowing it wasn't well, that things did not work. A fight is all I could do. That allowed me to win many games. It doesn't seem so, but a semi-final few QF ... Of course it worked! They are a strong mental work. They help you be stronger mentally. If you're playing badly when you get used to losing, is a very bad sign. A sign of weakness. What happened was bad tenísticamente.

P. That has weighed you this year?

That alone is more than winning. Everything falls by its place. One does not have eternal anxiety or bad luck forever. The important thing is to keep the level to win. Had to wait three months to win the first title. I have waited patiently, working hard. I have arrived on clay and I'm playing very well.

P: Why have they (hard courts tournies) helped you for the clay the tournaments? You lost in two semifinals when went an up the set.

Losses were difficult. I could have finished the U.S. tour win both tournaments. It would not have been strange. That has helped me to know that if I was at that level in fast courts, clay, which is a tad more I favorable for me, was going to help. It had.

P. You gave up 14 games. You won three games without giving away more than one. Only once, against Juan Carlos Ferrero, were you on the court more than an hour and a half. And the finally, both laughed, when you said: "Sorry, Fernando [Verdasco]".

The results are exaggerated  Winning a tournament as important as the Monte Carlo, with rivals so difficult on clay, as Ferrero, Ferrer and Verdasco ... I think I played well. Impeccable. No errors or backhand, or forehand, serving much better from the third day, moving well, being aggressive, defending well. Very complete.

P. Do you have to beat other top players to feel that you have regained your place?

I do not care any streak or no streak against in favor. I worry about playing well. I do not have to demonstrate to either myself or anyone, that when I playing well, I can beat everybody. And more on this surface. I can lose or win, but I'm on a way more than adequate to win. Do not forget that Djokovic lost to Verdasco 6-2 6-2. It is stupid to think about things of this type.

P. In Monte Carlo you did not played the doubles. Why, cautious?

In a tournament like Indian Wells [almost 15 days], which is played every other day, it does not hurt me to play the doubles. On the clay season, in which the tournaments are one week is very packed. Like it or not, I have had physical problems. We must be careful

P. They say that you get massages from jaw to toe.

No. What happens is that sometimes I have very tense jaw. I do not do a lot of massage, and when I do it is not for relaxation, but punctual, at the points where I'm most tense, usually the quadriceps. Sometimes, yes I am tense in the jaw, stress, I guess to make the effort to hit the ball.

P. There, on the stretcher (massage table), I notice a scar on the back.

As to be forgotten! It happened to me when I was 10 or the 11 years. I had a herpes (shingles) . I went to the dermatologist and he prescribed a compound that was make in a pharmacy to dry . They were mistaken. They gave me sulfuric acid. Two droplets and... burned me. Smoke appeared. I spend a year with an open wound

P. You should play Godo in Barcelona this week, despite the volcano.

It's weird. When you see that everything is stopped, it's because it is really serious. It's a disaster! The world is on a course. The life of every person, too. this caused stoppage and change of plans a lot of people, more than we imagined. We see if it passes, the ash cloud!

his scar in the middle of his back... but forget the scar have we noticed his pink undies?

appreciate a man who can pull off pink undies