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The exploits carried out by Rafael Nadal in the first part of the season have left everyone amazed. The Spanish phenomenon has won the first two Majors of 2022, despite having returned from a long stop due to injury. Triumphing at the Australian Open and Roland Garros, the 36-year-old Majorcan stretched over Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the all-time Grand Slam standings.
The Serbian has narrowed the gap by winning at Wimbledon for the seventh time in his career, but is unlikely to fly to the United States to play the US Open. Rafa, for his part, was unable to compete in the Wimbledon semi-final due to a tear in his abdominals.
The former world number 1 resumed training this week and is expected to return to Montreal next month. The director of the Canadian Masters 1000 has assured that the Iberian will be present in Quebec from 7 to 14 August. The Majorcan's goal is to arrive in top form at the US Open, where he hasn't played since 2019.
In an exclusive interview with the 'Tennis365' portal, John McEnroe revealed Nadal's greatest talent.
McEnroe opens up on Nadal
“I’ve never seen anyone like Rafael Nadal,” McEnroe told Tennis365 in an exclusive interview.
“I thought Jimmy Connors tried hard until I saw Rafael Nadal, this is insane. And that’s the greatest quality he has, by far. I mean, the guy’s an unbelievable player, we all know that. But the fact that he can go out there and give that type of effort, you know, match in and match out, game in and game out, is something that people aspire to, but it’s very difficult to do.
Otherwise, everyone would do it. I mean, you just say, well go to Nick Kyrgios and say ‘go out and give an effort, you’ll be No 2, No 3 in the world. Well, if it was that easy, I guess he would do it. But you know, for him, it isn’t”.
McEnroe also suggested parents have a huge role to play in the development of a young player, with his experience of some fuelling his belief that they are doing more harm than good to their children. “I try to tell the parents at my tennis structure that their kids should be going to school they all a lot of them start to get homeschooled I don’t agree with that,” he added.
“They’re more than they get more isolated. They put this tremendous pressure on, and that’s not a good idea for a kid. My belief system is to nurture these kids and to try to help them navigate through the difficulties of being out there on your own and being able to embrace it and hopefully get to a place where you could get the type of effort.
