Nadal won’t take ‘no’ for an answer

Rafael Nadal happy with what he has achieved after cruising through the opening round at the Australian Open.

Rafael Nadal plays a forehand during his first round win over Hugo Dellien Picture: Getty Images

After starting his Australian Open campaign in the sort of clobber they probably won’t let you wear at your local club — good luck getting on in a pink singlet and pink shoes — Rafael Nadal gives such an endearingly convoluted answer to the question of whether he will match Roger Federer’s 20 grand slam titles it is difficult to know exactly what he’s trying to say.

Nadal likes to end his statements with a polite challenge to disagree with him. He raises an eyebrow, no?

As in, he says you have to enjoy the suffering, no?

You just have to try your hardest, no?

You have to make sure your drink bottles are pointing at your end of the court, no?

How blessed we are to be witnessing the greatest era in the history of men’s tennis, an era in which we don’t have to compare the best athletes from different eras because they’re all in this one.

The GOAT debate is an impossible one — what do you want in a GOAT? Beauty? Majors? Head-to-heads? — and the jostle between Nadal, Federer and Novak Djokovic is becoming dramatic enough for a West End stage. Federer, 20 slams. Nadal, 19. Djokovic, 16. Incredible, no?

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“I don’t care about 20 or 15 or 16,” Nadal said after his 6-2 6-3 6-0 win over Bolivia’s Hugo Dellien at Melbourne Park on Monday.

“I just care about try to keep going, keep enjoying my tennis career. Is not like 20 is the number that I need to reach. If I reach 20, fantastic. If I reach 21, better.

“If I reach 19, super happy about all the things that I did in my tennis career, no?

“I am very satisfied about my tennis career because I give it all most of the time. That’s the only thing that matters because I don’t think — honestly, something I don’t really think about it.

“I don’t think in the future if I achieve 21 grand slams, for example, I’m going to be happier than if I am 19 in 10 years.”

He sounded more like the Dalai Lama trumpeting The Art of Happiness than an athlete trying to do what no male athlete in his sport had done before.

“I won the US Open few months ago and I was super happy in that moment,” he said.

“But today, I am happier than if I didn’t win the US Open? Probably not. That’s the only thing that matters in this life, no?

“Of course I want to do it in the best way possible because that’s what I am doing since the beginning of my life, almost.

“But the only thing I can do is put all my efforts on trying to keep going the best way possible.

“The rest of the things, the future will see.”

Nadal said he had not worked on anything specific in the off-season for the plausible reason that he had not actually had an off-season after he led Spain to the Davis Cup title with a herculean week of singles and doubles.

“From last year to this year is difficult because I don’t even recognise last year or this year,” Nadal said.

“I have been just in a straight season, no? I did some treatment at the end of the season, stay four days at home, and work again.”

Nadal’s majors: 12 French Opens, no? Four US Opens, no? Two Wimbledons, no? Just the one Australian Opens, no?

“Why I won here less?” he said.

“I don’t know. I have been a break up, twice, in the fifth set and I lost. Another time I have been injured in a final against a great opponent. At that time against an opponent that in that moment I have been, like, 14-0 against him on the head-to-head record.

“I had a problem on my luck in the final.

“Then other times, like 2018, I get injured against Cilic. I went through a couple of things, more than in New York.

“But I don’t know. Maybe the conditions are better for me in New York than here.

“That’s the only reason that I can find.”