Rafael Nadal says he wishes David Ferrer or any other Spaniard can win Olympics Gold

World number three Rafael Nadal of Spain has shared that he wants Spanish number two David Ferrer or any other player from his country to capture Gold Medal in the tennis event of London Olympics.

Nadal was asked in his latest interview of his favorite player to win the Olympics title. The patriotic Spaniard replied, “Tennis at the Olympic Games is such a special competition. Also because it’s on grass and it’s the best of three sets everybody can win…However I’m really patriotic so I wish David Ferrer or any Spanish player wins the Olympic Gold.”

Spain will now be represented by David Ferrer, Nicolas Almagro, Marcel Granollers, Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez. Feliciano has taken Nadal’s place in singles and Marc has got his doubles spot.

According to the facts, only Ferrer will be having real chances of winning a medal at the London Olympics. The world number five will be seeded fourth in the draw due to the absence of Nadal. In order to win the Gold Medal, the Spanish number two would have to beat two of the top three i.e. Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.

Ferrer has been in top form in recent months. He surprised Murray in the quarter-finals of the French Open, losing to none other than the King of clay Nadal in the semis. The 30-year-old could not match his feat at the Wimbledon as he lost a closely contested match to Murray in the quarterfinals.

The 11-time Grand Slam champion had earned Gold Medal for his country at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. He wanted to defend his title in London but his niggling knee injury forced him to stay away from the Games.

Announcing his withdrawal from London Olympics, Nadal admitted that it was one of the saddest moments of his life. The Spaniard was also nominated to his country’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony.

During the interview, Nadal was asked the reason of his pulling off from the biggest sports event in the world. He answered, “It’s sadly down to my knee. It’s a problem I was suffering from at Wimbledon and I simply haven’t recovered fully enough to play. It’s such a huge shame because the Olympic Games only come around every four years but that’s life and I hope to be back soon.”

Nadal is the most successful tennis player Spain has ever produced. He is at the fourth position in the list of all time Grand Slam title leaders. The Spaniard defeated the then reigning world number one Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the final to win his record breaking seventh French Open title at the start of June.

The 25-year-old would have been a strong contender for the title had he been fit to participate at the London Olympics. This is the same venue where Nadal ended Roger Federer’s reign by beating him in the 2008 Wimbledon final. The same knee injury stopped him from defending his title in 2009 but he captured it again in 2010 by toppling Tomas Berdych.