Rafael Nadal admitted that when he clinched the year-end number one ranking for the third time in his career, it was one of the most important highlights of his career.
“Today was more important [to] secure the No. 1 at the end of the season,” he said. “That’s the real thing. Because at the end during all my season I said is not my goal, but the real thing is after all the success I had during the season, winning, five Masters 1000s, playing a final in another, winning a few 500s, playing another final, winning two Grand Slams, so I think that after all what happened last year, I felt I deserved to be there at the end of the season. And today I did. So was one of the best things that I did in my career: Come back to the No. 1 after three seasons. That’s very difficult in our sport, and after a very important injury. That’s an emotional thing for me, for sure.”
Nadal said that it became a goal after he secured the US Open title in New York. The battle for the year-end number one was still close back then since there were still a number of tournaments to be played. Erstwhile number one Novak Djokovic was threatening to reclaim the number one ranking after successfully defending his titles in Beijing and Shanghai and winning the Paris Masters title last weekend.
“I felt that I had everything to be there,” Nadal said. “But at the same time, I have a zero in Australia, I have a zero in Miami, I have a zero in Wimbledon. A lot of zeros to be No. 1. I think is a great effort because I have unbelievable competitors in front. That makes the year?end No. 1 very, very special. You can feel how tough is everything that winning all the things that I win this year, until the last tournament, I was not able to make it. So that makes everybody think how difficult [it] is be there.”
