Can’t imagine intentionally missing tournaments like Federer, says Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal is enjoying himself on the Tennis court, playing on the ‘red dirt’ again at his adopted home in Monte Carlo.

And while he does seem content with his form and health, he isn’t quite at ease with how Federer has approached the clay court season.

For a second year running, Federer has opted out of the entire clay season in order to keep himself fresh for the grass court season, especially for Wimbledon, a strategy that worked for him brilliantly in 2017.

Nadal though feels that he couldn’t imagine himself intentionally missing tournaments like Federer has done over the past two years.

“There (are) tournaments that I can’t imagine missing on purpose, because (they are) tournaments that I love to play,” Nadal said, as reported by The Score

“I don’t see myself missing Monte Carlo on purpose. I don’t see myself missing Wimbledon on purpose, or the U.S. Open, or Australian, or Rome. These kind of events, I don’t see missing (them).”

Nadal will turn 32 this year but he still feels that even with age he wouldn’t actually go about missing tournaments.

“Of course, when you get older, you need to adjust a little bit more the efforts and the calendar. But for me (it) is difficult to say I don’t play, for example, grass, or I don’t play hard (courts),” Nadal said.

“(It) is not in my plan, but I can’t say `never’ because I cannot predict what’s going to be in the future.” he concluded.

This is Nadal’s second dig at Federer this week, as Federer had expressed interest in playing a 5 setter against Nadal on clay earlier.