During an interview on RMC radio’s Bartoli Time program, Toni Nadal, the uncle and former coach of Rafa, discussed his nephew’s comeback to competitive tennis. The primary focus highlighted in the interview was the French Open, a tournament where Rafa has achieved a remarkable record of 14 victories.

“Rafael is doing well. He’s back in training with good intensity, with the most important thing being the (dream) of playing the French Open again. I don’t think he’s thought about retiring, for one simple reason, which he’s told me many times. He doesn’t want to retire with the feeling of being injured.

“What he dreams of is having a good year, trying to play at a very high level again. He knows it’s going to be very difficult, because every year it gets harder and harder… But his dream is to try to be here again, especially to play in Paris again. If his body is fine, he thinks he’ll have the chance to do really great things at Roland Garros.

“His movement wasn’t very good at first but over the last three weeks he’s been training at a good level. The important thing is not to try to win, but to have the feeling of playing well.

“He has the will to still be here, he loves tennis, he loves competition, he loves the game. It’s his dream to play the tournaments he loves one last time. The more he plays, the more competitive he will be. We know that his legs aren’t the same as they were 10 years ago, but in his head nothing has changed. He still has the same determination.”

Source: tennismajors.com