Rafael Nadal believes that he has ample time to prepare for the French Open 2013 tournament, where he returns as the defending champion. The 7-time Roland Garros champion was defeated by Novak Djokovic last weekend at the Monte Carlo Masters where the Spaniard was an 8-time defending champion.
“I needed more physical performance,” Nadal said to the reporters.
“I needed more matches to play with this intensity all the time. I need to be completely focused in every moment. That gives you the competition, gives you this special things, extra things, when you are playing against some players maybe you don’t need sometimes. But to play against Novak, to play against few players, you will need, and I need. I [am] going to work on that,” he added.
Nadal is currently in Barcelona for the Barcelona Open where he is a seven-time champion. He’s also slated to participate at the Madrid Masters and Rome Masters before the claycourt slam even in Paris.
“Roland Garros is very far,” he said. “We have Barcelona, then we have Madrid, then we have Rome. It’s enough time, I think yes. It’s more than enough.”
