Rafael Nadal, who pulled out of his semifinal against Andy Murray at Miami’s Sony Ericsson Open, says his sore left knee is not as bad as it was in 2009, when he was forced to pull out of Wimbledon and did not have chance to defend his title. Nadal said the knee pain began while he was training at home in Mallorca in February, then got worse at the tournament at Indian Wells, where he lost in the semifinals to Roger Federer.
The Spaniard is optimistic about the clay-court season, when he is scheduled to play five tournaments in two months time: Monte Carlo and Barcelona back to back, Madrid and Rome back to back, and then Roland Garros.
“Seriously the tendons are much better today than three years ago,” Nadal told reporters. “The treatments worked fantastic. Even if today a really bad knee and last couple of days were tough for me, but positive thing the tendon improve a lot the last couple of years. I am more health with both tendons than now. So the treatments are working well. In 2009 I compete in very bad conditions a lot of times. For the last couple of years, 2010, 2011, I was able to compete with perfect conditions for almost all the year. So that's always fantastic when that's happening...I try my best in every moment with pain, without pain, but when I see the situation is done and I cannot, I cannot."