According to former legendary ATP player Jimmy Connors, Rafael Nadal is not playing for money anymore, despite some other claims from fans.
Nadal has reached a point in his career where health will always be something he needs to take care of. Just look at the last few years he’s had. There were times when he was healthy and played well.
That part was never a problem, but there were also a lot of times when he simply wasn’t fit enough to play. He missed most of last year due to a hip problem that required surgery, and his return happened only this year in January.
He played a few matches and got injured again, but his return happened recently at the Netflix Slam. He played that match but immediately withdrew from Indian Wells, which was an unfortunate development for the Spaniard.
Speaking about that on his Advantage Connors podcast, the legend explained how Nadal is clearly not playing for the money because he doesn’t need to.
All of these decision are clearly made because he loves the game and wants to compete, and not because he would need to earn extra money by playing in an exhibition.
“Things have changed because the amount of money they are playing for now and surely the amount of money that he’s made, he’s not playing for the money.”
Connors on Nadal
To Connors, doing it solely for the money doesn’t make much sense because Nadal can make plenty of money in other ways. It’s the love for the game that’s so impressive to him, especially when it’s been really hard and certainly not that enjoyable anymore.
“You come back and you play because you love the game, you love the competition and you love everything that goes with trying to win everytime you walk out there, and his competitiveness has always been at the very top.”
After withdrawing from the Indian Wells Open, and absorbing criticism that he got injured because of playing an exhibition, Nadal will now focus on the clay-court part of the season.
