BARCELONA – Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal said Tuesday he was skipping the Barcelona Open, where he is the defending champion, because he “wants to keep playing the best possible for the longest time possible” and to avoid the heavy schedule that took a toll on his body in previous seasons.
“I am perfect, I am very well, but I don’t want to have a repeat of last year,” Nadal said in a press conference.
Many feared that Nadal, a five-time champion here who has battled knee problems in recent years, might reveal some new injury at the press conference, but he put his fans at ease.
Nadal said it would be “madness” to think he was injured after the way he dominated countryman Fernando Verdasco 6-0, 6-1 on Sunday to win his sixth consecutive title at the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters.
The win in Monte Carlo ended an 11-month stretch without a title for the former world No. 1 dating back to last year’s Italian Open. That title drought included the first loss in his career at the French Open and his withdrawal from Wimbledon with a knee injury.
“For the tennis to be good, I have to be well physically and that’s the main goal,” Nadal said.
Nadal, who has been critical of the ATP tour schedule, especially the European clay-court season, in the past, made it clear that he had not planned to skip Barcelona.
“I had not planned it, let’s make that clear. Tennis is not like soccer. You don’t know the matches you’re going to play, and you plan the calendar based on the matches and not the tournaments. If I’d arrived in Monte Carlo and lost on Wednesday, the normal thing would’ve been to play here tomorrow,” Nadal said.
The world No. 3 said he won Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome last year, wearing himself out physically.
He lost at the French Open and spent more than two months off the tour, ending up unable to defend his title at Wimblendon.
Nadal said the taste of victory he got in Monte Carlo after 350 days without a win made him focus on “being careful” so he could “maintain the level.”
“It’s not an act, far from it. For me, not playing here is a hard blow. It’s my club, it’s Barcelona, I’m in my house and I’ve won here five years. But, you know, with the years you learn more, you start getting more experience, last year was an unpleasant experience and I think playing three weeks straight is not the best thing for me,” Nadal said.
Last year, Nadal defeated countryman David Ferrer 6-2, 7-5 in the final of the Barcelona Open.
“Next year, the schedule is going to be much more favorable, and I’ll play here,” Nadal said, referring to the fact that there will be a week off between Barcelona and Rome in 2011.
Nadal has won six Grand Slams, including four French Open titles, one Wimbledon championship and one Australian Open title.
After dominating in the early part of the 2009 tour, the 23-year-old Nadal did not win a singles event over the final six months of the year.
His most crushing loss came at the French Open against Sweden’s Robin Soderling, who handed the Spaniard his first-ever defeat at that Grand Slam tournament in five appearances.
Nadal subsequently withdrew from Wimbledon due to a knee injury and then struggled against the top players after returning to action late in the summer.
The Spanish star, considered by many the best clay-court player in the history of tennis, is now gearing up for the Italian Open, which begins next week, but he said he would play in the Masters 1000 event in Madrid, another mandatory tournament, before trying to regain his title in Paris.
