Rafael Nadal is in an extremely sensitive phase of his career right now. On his comeback, Nadal has not the desired results even on his beloved surface, clay. But the 22-time Grand Slam champion feels that his best chances to win are still on clay, which is why he has opted to play in the Olympics 2024 in Paris and not the Wimbledon Championships. For that, Nadal will be heading to Sweden soon to play a tournament and this is something former World No.1 Andy Roddick thought, would never happen again.
Rafael Nadal will participate in the Bastad Open, an ATP 250 event as a wildcard. Interestingly, he last played there in 2005, when he won the tournament and it was a breakout season for him. Andy Roddick had earlier predicted that Rafael Nadal would never go back there, just to play an ATP 250 tournament anymore. But now, Roddick has backed Nadal’s decision.
Nadal is taking it easy on his body and looking forward to the Olympics, where he will plays doubles as well with the reigning French Open champion, Carlos Alcaraz. In an interaction with Tennis Channel, Andy Roddick reasoned that had Rafael Nadal opted to play at Wimbledon, he could have injured himself again.
Transitioning from one surface to another in such a short span of time requires intense training, which can be mentally and physically exhausting.
“I’m sure the organizers of the tournament [Wimbledon] are super disappointed and they definitely had Rafa playing Bastad, when he was hurt in December last year, in their bingo card.”
“This is great. No matter how great you are, it’s tough to just waltz into the Olympics, and play that level of tennis with two months gap in between. So, this makes sense,” Roddick was quoted as saying.
This is not the first time Andy Roddick has backed Rafael Nadal. When Nadal opted out of the Indian Wells 2024 tournament at the last moment, several fans pointed out that he had played the Netflix Slam 3 days prior to that, picking money over a Masters tournament.
However, in an episode of his podcast Served With Andy Roddick, the former World No.1 rushed to his defense, stating that playing an exhibition match and playing in a Masters event is not the same thing. It will be interesting to see if Roddick commentates during Rafael Nadal’s matches at the Olympics on Tennis Channel, which could delight the Spaniard’s American fanbase for sure.
