Rafael Nadal Won’t ‘Travel to New York Today’ For US Open Unless It’s Extremely Safe

Rafael Nadal will not be willing to travel to New York if US Open was to held today and has advised for tennis tournaments to not resume unless it’s completely safe to travel around the world.

Tennis, like other sports, stands suspended since March in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.

“If you asked me if I want to travel to New York today to play a tennis tournament, I will say no – I will not,” Nadal was quoted as saying by the BBC. “But in a couple of months, I don’t know how the situation is going to improve. I am confident that if the tournament is played, it’s going to be under extremely safe circumstances. If not, in my opinion, it doesn’t make sense.”

US Tennis Association (USTA) is expected to take a call on whether to hold this year’s second grand slam event later this month. Already French Open. which would have been in its second week today, has been rescheduled to September while Wimbledon has been cancelled for the first time since the second world war.

“My feeling is we need to be responsible, sending strong messages, and be a positive example for the society,” Nadal said.

“We need to understand we are suffering an unprecedented situation and my feeling is we need to come back when all the players, from all the countries of the world, are able to travel under safe circumstances. I want to see my sport being 100% fair and correct,” he added.

The 19-time Grand Slam winner wants tennis to be a ‘little bit more’ patient.

“The key, of course, is to find a medicine that helps us to be sure we can travel and compete without being scared of having the virus and bringing back the virus home. My feeling is we need to wait a little bit more,” Nadal, who turned 34 this Wednesday, said.

The Spaniard revealed he’s gradually increasing his workload to avoid injuries, limiting his practise to just two days in a week.

“As you can imagine, I need to take things step by step,” he said. “I just try to avoid injuries and increase the amount of work every single week. I’m not practising every single day, I’m just practising a couple of days a week.”