Moving up Rafael Nadal rose to No 3 in the world rankings after his run to the final at Indian Wells
‘My uncle, my family, they never allowed me to break a racket, never allowed me to say bad words or give up in a match’
you see the improvements and you know that after this period of time you should be fine. “My position [withmy foot] is completely different. We tried things with zero success for a long period of time. After all the things that I have been through inmy career, of course at my age the doubts are there. When you have an injury that you can’t recover from, it’s much tougher mentally. When you can’t do the things that you really want to do to come back after such a long time – working in the gymor in the swimming pool or on the practice court – it’s tough. It’s painful. Mentally sometimes it’s heart-breaking.”
probably not the most important thing. The most important thing was the education and the fact that I grew up with the right values. I had to do things that way, because if I didn’t I would not have played tennis. If I had gone on court and created a circus or broken a racket or lost my self- control, I have no doubt that I would not have been playing the next tournament. That’s probably why I have this mentality.” When askedwhat had carried him through all his problems, Nadal had a simple answer: “Love for the game, passion, positive attitude andworking spirit. And the right people next tome helping every single day. That’s all.”
Nadal says his competitive spirit is part of his “personal DNA”, which in part explains howhe continues to overcome the physical issues that have dogged his career. However, the Spaniard says that he also owes much to the virtues of discipline and self-control that were ingrained in him for years by those around him, especially his uncle Toni, who coached him for years. “My uncle, my family, never allowedme to break a racket, never allowedme to say bad words or give up in a match,” he said. “When I was a kid they probably didn’t care much about winning or losing. Of course my parents, my family, my uncle all wanted me to win every single match, but that was
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