Andy Roddick revealed Rafael Nadal’s poor serve and expressed concern that the Spaniard won’t have the proper tennis farewell because of his persistent injury problems.
There had been great expectations that Nadal would enjoy a year-long farewell tour when he revealed last year that the 2024 season would probably be his last one as a professional, but it doesn’t seem like that will be the case.
Due to a muscle injury, Nadal has not participated in a competitive tennis match since the Brisbane International in January.
Roddick expressed his thoughts about Nadal in a recent podcast and said: “I have this hope in the back of my mind that he’s gonna get healthy and he doesn’t need to be healthy for 52 weeks, he needs to be healthy for two months. Like, just burn it, go all of it, take all of the painkillers that you need to take, and let’s do one more. I always kind of thought we were going to have some version of that, maybe not winning but imagine him winning the third round at Roland Garros, a tough four-setter, the place falls apart like. I want that for him.”
He further said: “[But] similar to Roger. Roger retired at the Laver Cup – he probably wouldn’t say this out loud – but Roger wanted to retire at Wimbledon or the US Open. He wanted to play those. He wanted to do that, he wanted to say goodbye, it happened in three days as opposed to three months. It feels like we’re getting closer to that being a reality for Rafa. When he [Nadal] was in Vegas, corners were tough. The biggest thing that I noticed, and it’s a tougher thing to observe with Rafa because it’s never been the thing that he hung his hat on, the serving was tough. The serving was bad! Action, pace, the second serve wasn’t kicking up and away, that is tough.”
Rafael Nadal in 2024
Now the world no.644, Nadal played his last match on the 5th of January when he lost to world no.33 Jordan Thompson 5-7 7-6(6) 6-3 in the quarter in Brisbane (draw).
Until now, during this year the Spaniard has achieved a 2-1 match record.
Rafael Nadal will compete against the world no.62 Flavio Cobolli in the 1st round on Tuesday at 4:00 pm on PISTA RAFA NADAL. In the past, they have never played each other up to now in top competitions.
Nadal won 92 titles in his career: 24 on hard courts, 63 on clay courts, 1 on indoor courts and 4 on grass courts. (See the list of his titles)
He is also scheduled to play in Madrid (Mutua Madrid Open) on the 24th of April and Rome (Internazionali BNL d’Italia) on the 8th of May.
