London: Rafael Nadal is not taking a vacation at the end of this year — he feels he simply does not deserve one.
The Spaniard, who squared off against top seed and world number one Novak Djokovic in an entertaining semi-final of the Barclays ATP World Tour Final at the O2 Arena on Saturday, felt he had not done enough this season to earn a much-deserved break from tennis.
Along with Mats Wilander, Nadal is among the two male players in history who have won at least two Grand Slams on three different surfaces — hard court, grass and clay. Following his triumph at Roland Garros last year, Nadal became the only men’s player to win a single Grand Slam tournament nine times and the first to win at least one Major title for ten consecutive years, breaking the record of eight consecutive years previously shared by Bjorn Borg, Pete Sampras and Roger Federer.
The Spaniard is also the only male player in tennis history to win one Grand Slam and Masters 1000 title for 10 consecutive years between 2005 and 2014. However, this year has been a different story as Nadal has struggled for form and seen his ranking drop.
However, the past few months has seen Nadal arrest the slide while showing signs of making a comeback on the men’s tour. Earlier this week at the O2, Nadal scalped three of the top eight players defeating Stan Wawrinka, Andy Murray and David Ferrer to go into the semi-finals with an all-clean record of 3-0 facing his long-time opponent Novak Djokovic.
“I have not done the right work this season and I don’t deserve any vacation this year. I am going to have the next couple of days off after this tournament. Then next Friday, Saturday and Sunday I have the charity event for my foundation. I am going to do some physical fitness. I will not be doing any tennis next week, but probably Wednesday, Thursday, Friday I am going to be in the gym,” Nadal related.
“Then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday I am going to practice a little bit of tennis and continue with the physical fitness so that I am ready for the IPTL. For me, it is like being in Mallorca practising. I am going to be practising a lot every day. It’s like preparation for next season. That’s it,” he added.
“After that, [IPTL] I will go back to Mallorca. I have to be there from December 14-22 because Joao Sousa is coming to practice in Mallorca for a few days and then I head to Abu Dhabi [for the Mubadala Tennis].”
