Rafael Nadal’s coach, Toni Nadal, says his nephew will return to play at Wimbledon in the future:
“We love so much to play here. I hope next year he will play so much better because this tournament is very special – it was (the scene of) one of Rafael’s greatest wins in 2008. For us, playing Wimbledon is always in our minds.”
Toni Nadal added that no decision had been made over when Rafa would return to action.
“I don’t know exactly – maybe we can play on clay a little, or we can go to the United States. I don’t know.”
“What happened, we lose the match. That’s what happened, nothing else. Rafael has played a bad game and Steve Darcis played so much better… he win this match and we lose,” he said.
“The people said that (it was) the knees, but the knees are the same as in Roland Garros, in Indian Wells, or in Madrid or Rome. And with these knees we won the tournaments, we won Roland Garros.”
“He has made nine finals, (won) seven titles, he won Roland Garros. And then his health go a little down,” he revealed.
“We come here with not a very good preparation, it was very difficult to play here… without playing a tournament before.
“And here it’s true, it’s so much (more) difficult now for Rafael to play here because on grass you should play more down (lower to the ground), the movements are difficult at this moment. But what was very bad was our forehand, our serve, our volley, all these things.
“I’m sure next year we come with very good preparation and we can play so much better than this year.”
“For us to play Wimbledon is unbelievable, it’s one of our favourite tournaments,” Tomi explained.
“I can never forget the wins in 2008 and 2010. To lose the first round here playing Wimbledon is very bad, but so much worse is not to play here.
“(Just) to come here is special.”
Speaking to Spanish daily El Pais, Nadal said a little more on the topic. Read the original (in Spanish) here.
Thanks to @nycsandygirl for tweeting a translated version!