I know I'm a little late in posting this, but I've often enjoyed reading Rafa's pressers. They do, mostly, contain the same rah-rah-rah, but then blame the quality of the questions asked. I think this one is a good one, and you can read it in full here, or in the Rafa's pressers box to the right on the Blog.
I just wanted to pick out what he has to say about the Year-End No. 1 ... because I love how balanced he is about is. That's why we love Rafa, that's why when he leaves tennis he'll go without a care in the world. Because he's not eaten up with ego, unlike two of his most notable contemporaries. Anyhow, here's what he had to say ...
Q. You have the chance here to make sure that you can finish as No. 1 for the end of the year. What would that mean to you? And also, here, Paris, it's one of the few Masters 1000 tournaments you haven't won yet. Does that give you extra motivation?
RAFAEL NADAL: The easier question is say yes. The real question is not. The real question, when I go to play in every tournament I play with the same motivation. Even if I won two, I won five, or I won zero. Because at the end, every tournament is important for me. I try to play with my high intensity in every tournament.
Sometimes the results are positive; sometimes the result are not that positive. I'm excited to be back in Paris. Paris is a very special city for me. Probably more special city of the world. We'll see what's going on.
Talking about the No. 1, seriously, I will answer this question for the rest of the week. It really don't worries me. Seriously.
It's something during the whole season I say the same: My goal is not to be No. 1. My goal is be healthy finish the season. For very positive circumstances I am here today being the No. 1 of the world.
But that doesn't change my feeling from the beginning, that what make me happy is go on court ever day with a feeling that I am healthy, with the feeling that I am playing well, and feeling that I can lose and I can win against everybody.
That happened for most of the tournaments this year, so the season is done for me. I did much more than what I thought. We'll see. I going to try it finish well here and in London. If I am able to play well and I finish No. 1, great.
If not, doesn't change the season as being one of the best of my career without any doubt. I enjoyed probably more than ever to play tennis the whole year. Very emotional matches this year for the situation that I had last year.
So the thing that worries less to me is the numbers on my ranking today. I have been in the top 2 for, I don't know, eight years, nine. I don't know. Seriously, that's not going to change my career, finish No. 1 this year or not if I will be better or worse player at the end of my career.
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