You have only lost two matches at Roland Garros since your first participation in 2005. What must your opponents do to fight in Paris: invent a style of play, play like you but better yet, wait for your retirement?
Rafael Nadal
: As long as it's the last (note: answer, laughs)! Unfortunately, that's not how it is, no one is invincible anywhere. This year, I lost in Monte-Carlo and Madrid. I hope not to lose here at Roland Garros. What can I do to fight? I will not give clues to my opponents. Me, I have to worry about what I have to do so that they don't beat me. And they must do the same on their side.
When you approach Roland-Garros, do you first think of winning your 101st match, your 14th Coupe des Mousquetaires, or your 21st Grand Slam title, which would be a record?
I have just arrived in Paris and I only think of one thing, to train, to familiarize myself as well as possible with the courts, to find good feelings and my habits to be competitive when I start my tournament.
The goals here are always at their highest, but to achieve them it is daily work in order to constantly improve.
I hope I can fight for something big.
"Favorite or not, that's not the question: my goal is to be the one who plays the best"
You are going to celebrate your 35 years in Paris where you are once again the big favorite. Would you have imagined it a few years ago?
Ten years ago, no. But if you had asked me the question two years ago, maybe I would have answered yes. Ten years ago, I had so many physical problems that it was difficult for me to imagine that my career would last so long. I kept the hope, the passion, and my physique, despite having problems from time to time, allowed me to continue. And here I am, today, with ambitions at Roland Garros, which is a very special place for me. Favorite or not, that's not the question: my goal is to be the one who plays the best.
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Of your thirteen titles at Roland Garros, is there one more important than the others?
It is very difficult to choose one.
Each has had a particular resonance in my career.
Once because it was the first, another because I was coming back from a serious injury, another because I had lost the year before, another because it was the tenth, another because that it allowed me to equal (Roger Federer) with 20 Grand Slam titles ... I would not know which to choose.
What about your worst memories?
Without a doubt 2009 and the loss to (Robin) Söderling, but also 2016, when I had to give up due to a wrist injury.
As for the best, I don't know.
There are so many that it is difficult to choose one.
Do you have a favorite place?
I like the locker room, the times we spend there before and after games.
The preparation, the concentration, the shower.
I feel good there, I know him well.
It reassures me to find myself before games in places where I have been so many times in the past.
When you enter Central Court, it's a unique sensation.
"Roland-Garros is the cathedral of clay courts"
Did you immediately feel at ease on the clay courts of Roland-Garros?
At first, I think I played better in Monte-Carlo or Rome. It is more difficult to have a good feeling at Roland Garros, the court is very large and these are different sensations from those of other tournaments. Of course I felt good, clay is a surface that I know well, on which I feel comfortable and confident. Roland-Garros is the cathedral of clay, I have never had bad feelings there, but it is also true that I have had very good ones in other tournaments on this surface.
What makes Roland-Garros clay so special?
Each place has its peculiarities. Rome's court cannot be the same as Barcelona's, and Barcelona's cannot be the same as Monte-Carlo's. The land is not necessarily the same. That of Monte-Carlo always looks a little more like that of Roland-Garros. After, depending on the climate, the larger or smaller courts, the sensations are very different.
A statue of you was erected this year in the stadium. What does it mean to you?
I want to thank the French Tennis Federation and Roland-Garros for wanting to put a statue of me in such an important place in sport.
Also thank the current president, and the previous one for promoting this idea.
Thank you for affection and support.
Here I feel at home.
I thank all the people who work at Roland Garros, who make me feel happy there, that I feel one of them, and that when I arrive here, I feel a particular joy.
"What I accomplished in Paris, even if I don't like to say that, is something very, very special"
Is it strange to have a statue while you are still playing?
No ... Ultimately it's true that what I accomplished in Paris, even if I don't like to say that, is something very, very special. I am grateful and I understand the gesture: I accomplished something that was very difficult to imagine.
Do you think tennis needs to change its formats, for example shortening matches?
I don't know, I'm too old for all of this (smile). We, the players, do not have enough information to have an opinion on this kind of thing. It is up to the public, to the fans, to the authorities to say what is best for tennis to continue to be a major sport. We, the players, have to play tennis and accept that there are people better trained than us in the management of the sport, and smarter than us to make the right decisions so that in the future our sport remains a world benchmark sport.
The future of tennis, could it be a player who only plays forehands while changing his racket?
If someone is able to do this in a completely natural way, and do it really well, sure it's better to have two forehands than a forehand and a backhand. In theory anyway. But if no one has ever done it, in a sport with a long history ... Inventing things is very difficult. Me, I didn't invent anything, I copied things from a lot of players, and I improved some maybe. I always say you have to be inspired by the best. And when looking for models, look for your own style.
And you, child, which ones inspired you?
It was Carlos Moya, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Thomas Muster, Boris Becker, (Richard) Krajicek, (Michael) Stich ... I followed them on television.
Interview by Elodie SOINARD and Igor GEDILAGHINE
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