Nadal Motivated To Succeed In Beijing

It has been one of the best years of Rafael Nadal’s career on the ATP World Tour. The Spaniard has won his 10th Roland Garros, the US Open, advanced to the Australian Open final and re-claimed his spot atop the Emirates ATP Rankings. Yet, there is no chance that he would look past this week’s China Open in Beijing.

“Every tournament is important,” Nadal said. “Every time that I go to any event, my goal is try to play my best and to try to go for everything, no?”

Perhaps it is that focus and determination that has helped propel the 31 year old to the top of the Emirates ATP Race To London, already clinching his spot in the Nitto ATP Finals with a tour-leading five titles (tied w/ Federer and Zverev) and three finals.

Nadal’s ability to keep bouncing back from health struggles — he ended last season in October due to a wrist injury — nearly a decade after first rising to No. 1 in the world in 2008, has largely been because of the left-hander’s ability to stay motivated for every tournament and every individual match.

“I had some injuries, but good thing is I keep having the passion for the game and the love for what I am doing and the spirit to overcome tough situations in terms of physical issues, no? That’s the key,” Nadal said. “Of course, the spirit of improvement: every day when I wake up, going on court with the goal of doing something better than what I was doing. At the same time, as I said before, the motivation to keep having chances to do what I really like to do.”

This week, Nadal would really like to win his second title in Beijing, where four of the Top 10 players in the world are competing. The Spaniard faces Lucas Pouille, who defeated Nadal in last year’s US Open fourth round in five sets, in the first round.

“There is a lot of great players. I have a very tough first round against Lucas. Let’s see,” Nadal said. “Tomorrow is an important day for me. Is a tough start, a difficult one. Let’s see. But I am focused on trying to be ready for tomorrow. I think I practised well, so let’s see tomorrow what can happen.”