Rafael Nadal said that he played Roland Garros 2022 with a different racket, during an interview for the ATP website. Rafa Nadal explained: “Over the years, I had to adapt to stay competitive. My tennis became more offensive and I made some changes to the racket.
I slightly changed the tension of the strings and put more lead in the head of the racket to get more power. Two days before the start of Roland Garros, I went back to my old racket. I want to thank Babolat, who made it for me in one afternoon.
With the new one I didn’t feel the right sensations on clay, but I will play again in the coming months.” Rafa continues to have fun playing tennis: “I’m not still competing for records or to be the best in history.
Roger, Novak and myself have made all our dreams come true. I don’t play to win other Grand Slams, but to relive these special moments” Nadal’s triumph at Roland Garros 2022 provoked reactions around the world. The Spanish phenomenon seemed to have enormous difficulties during the Masters 1000 in Rome, due to the pain in his foot that has plagued him since 2005.
It was once feared that the Spaniard might miss out on the second big of the season, but Rafa has pulled off another legendary feat. After surviving two bona fide battles against Felix Auger-Aliassime and Novak Djokovic, the former World No.
1 benefited from Alexander Zverev’s injury in the semi-finals.
Stubbs reflects on Rafa Nadal
On the latest edition of her show, ‘The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast,’ the 51-year-old said she that knew what was going to happen when Rafael Nadal got his doctor along to Paris.
“You know just to see Rafa again, find a way, with literally a dead foot – I knew when he said that he was bringing his doctor to the French Open, I knew exactly was going to be happening. I knew that he would be hitting that foot out with as much painkiller and anaesthetic that he could, to be able to operate on the tennis court and run,” Stubbs said, adding, “You know to see what he did by winning the tournament again is just outrageous.
To put his foot to sleep basically, to think he has an issue with the bone sort of basically depleting on him and cutting the nerve so he can actually run on a tennis court without pain is just outrageous,” Stubb said.
“You hear it in his voice, he knows that he cannot sustain that because when you put your foot to sleep you don’t have as much control over it and he’s probably worried about tearing or obviously going over on his ankle or he could fracture his foot and he has no idea because he has no pain in it because he’s deadened it so it’s just unbelievable,” she said.
Source: Tennis World USA