Despite his physical ailments, the Spaniard, 38 in June, feels he is making progress and is pushing for an Olympic appearance in Paris
Shortly after his first ever opening-round defeat on Court-Philippe Chatrier, Rafael Nadal arrived at the press conference room for his postmortem in a jovial mood. After a career of dominance at Roland Garros, where he has so often been untouchable even against some of the greatest ever players, he would have been forgiven for feeling a sense of injustice and frustration with a straight-sets loss in the first round to Alexander Zverev. Instead, he felt progress: “I was not that far,” he said. “That’s my feeling.”
Nadal’s demeanour further underlined what has been increasingly clear over the last few weeks. If this really is the end and retirement is imminent, it will be because his body made the decision, not his mind. It seems clear that the player who turns 38 next week would love to further elongate his career and he is determined to do everything possible to try.