Here's the first part...
Q: At which stage of the recovery process are you? Must be tedious and bugging you too, right?
D: Well, the truth is that I'm doing very well, following the stages we planned, without rushing anything, taking it easy... Getting a bit eager to start playing tennis. In 20 days I will begin. Obviously with very light [training], step by step. Everything is going very well and easy for now.
Q: And from now on, this is the final stage? In 20 days you'll slowly start hitting the ball, as you've said. And what will you do then? Will you go to some special place, or will the whole recovery take place here [in Buenos Aires]?
D: No, everything here. The only thing I'll do is go to Spain in mid-September for the final examination. At that point I will already be playing again... Bah, training a little harder, with more intensity on the court. So there [in Spain] I will have another important test with the doctor. But basically, it's not very much: the first week I'll play tennis for 20 minutes each day, standing, without moving much, without making any abrupt movements. The second week a little more, playing half an hour, or 40 minutes. The third week about an hour, and so on. Above all, it's about not making movements in the beginning that could be counterproductive for me at this still delicate stage.
Q. And when do you think you'll play an ATP tournament?
D: Next year... Yes, next year. Earlier than that would mean rushing the process and jeopardizing the recovery, the rehabilitation and that's not worth it... Not worth it. I will try to arrive in Australia in good shape, which is the objective, and start the next year in full strength.
Q: - With a Grand Slam. You're completely aware that you'll drop in the ranking. Anyway, that's okay, because it's natural... But do you think about in which [ranking] position roughly you'll find yourself when you return to start playing again? Do you make such calculations? Or does it not bother you, at all?
D: No... Look, when it comes to these things, I'm unlike most of the others on the Tour. There are guys who sleep with their ranking under their pillow but I don't pay any attention to it. Therefore I know that I'll drop [in the ranking], I don't know whether to 40, 60 or 80, but for me that doesn't make that much of a difference because I'll get the protected ranking for eight tournaments, plus wild cards, which will allow me to play some more tournaments. I have the whole year covered and playing all year at a good level, I'll regain a normal ranking by mid-season or by the end of the year, if all goes well and I'm able to do well. So, it is just a question of numbers, nothing more. And that those tournaments I want to play I can finish playing [and not having to retire].
So David will finally start playing tennis again! On August 26th, according to this. And even if he'll start playing without moving - that's great news. :)
Note: some excerpts from this interview have appeared in a recent article on clarin.com. There, they chose to quote from the section of the interview where David talks about the Davis Cup - again. The article also features a poll about whether or not Argentina needs David to be able to win the Davis Cup. 82,6% of those who voted said yes.
18 comments:
Thanks Julia. That's good news indeed.
thanks, Julia. This is great - David sounds so positive. And it makes it seem as though it's not such a long time to wait now before he's back.
I love the bit about some guys sleeping with their ranking under the pillow! :-)
No problem. :) Though most of the credit belongs to Tamar.
David does indeed sound very positive and relaxed in that interview. In fact, there's so much laughter and joking going on that there are parts where it gets really difficult to understand anything...
But yeah, it's great news and I agree, it makes the wait seem much more foreseeable.
Thanks, Tamar! :)
It's good that he will be able to pick up a racquet soon. When he says light training, that reminds me of that Youtube video of him training in Indian Wells where he's practically standing and hitting balls without moving, lol. If it were me, I'd find the limitations very annoying, like if it wasn't important to start the training on a gradual basis, I'd take the attitude of preferring not to play at all.
It makes sense why rankings are a big deal to people, those that have problems maintaining their rankings high enough to play ATP events (instead of challengers) and those that are financially dependent on it.
Of course thanks Tamar :)
I wish I spoke Spanish to visit her websites :(
Well, you can visit them anyway, right? For example, the photo pages (incuding the ones she took herself) are not that difficult to find. ;)
And yeah, thanks Tamar! Because in the meantime, she has transcribed a big chunk of the radio interview. Translation coming soon...
Krystle, about rankings and pillows, I think he meant those players who're really proud of their rankings, rather than those who have to watch it for financial etc reasons. My impression.
You think so? I interpret it as meaning that they care about it enough to still think about it at night.
I'd say it means that it's very precious to them. And they don't want anybody to take it away from them.
In any case, Julia, Krystle, don't you think David's exposing the arrogance and self-importance people attach to their rankings-whether high or low? I think so.
Since I raised the subject of David's comment about some guys sleeping with their ranking under the pillow... I just thought it was an amusing way of putting it.
He did say he was unlike most of the others on the tour in that he doesn't attach that much importance to his ranking. But of course it's very important to a player, as it determines whether they get seeded, whether they get into the top tournaments, and for some, whether they can even make tennis their career. So it's likely that some do think about it or worry about it a lot.
I don't think David necessarily meant it as a criticism of his fellow players. He knows he's not typical in that he doesn't let his whole life revolve around his career.
About what David said, I think David meant what Krystle Lee said. David meant others player think the ranking is too important, they think about it day and night, and David doesn't care a lot about it.
Istabraq and Camilia: it's a pleasure to help english-speakers notice what David said and is doing :)
i'm sure all of you will like the second part of the interview ;)
Camilia: as you can't understand spanish but you would like to visit my web about David (thanks to say that!:) ), I'll recommend you some sections that, although you don't know spanish, i'm sure you are going to enjoy them ;)
-As Julia said, you can see photos I took the times a saw David: http://davidnalbandianesunidolototal.jimdo.com/exclusivo/fotos-exclusivas/
-Here you can hear the David Nalbandian's song, which name is "King David": http://davidnalbandianesunidolototal.jimdo.com/la-canción-de-david/
-Also, here you can see pictures about David Nalbandian Fundation: http://davidnalbandianesunidolototal.jimdo.com/la-fundación-david-nalbandian/ (i have to add a photo about a t-shirt that the fundation sold for Davis Cup).
-To finish, in this part you can write messagges to David. Every time I see him I gave him the new ones ;) Once he told me he always read them ;) http://davidnalbandianesunidolototal.jimdo.com/escribile-a-david/mensajes-para-david/
(Obviously, you can write in english!)
Well... I think that's it! I think you are not going to have too many problems in this sections ;) whatever you don't understand... please, don't doubt, ask me. I hope you like the web and then, please, tell me your impressions! ;)
Something a forgot to mention: I heard lot of times saying David that he is not a "fanatic" of seeing the ranking, compared to other players. That's to say, he is not all the time calculating if the tennis player who is before him needs to arrive to the final of a tournament to have David's position, for example...
You are right Julia I can always look at the photos. ;) You just reminded me when I was a little girl and couldn't read and I'd just look at the pics in my brothers' books lol
Thanks tamar, I love good news...and this inteview made me feel happy!!!! I can't wait to see our Nalby back on court. I hope the first time he'll try to run will not be too painful. But Nalby is brave and will ignore his pain as he did the last 2 years (I did not realize how he suffered...he never let it show). Of course, Agentinian team needs him to win Davis cup (what a strange poll!!)
Thanks Tamar that's so nice of you *hug*
I'm gonna visit the sections you suggested and give you my pressions for sure :)
It seems I'm going blind, I didn't see this post yesterday lol
Hello, see Clarin of today, there is a short article about Nalby, they say that Claudio Galasso has begun to work with David
Yeah, that's also in the radio interview, I'm still working on. Meaning the part about Galasso.
The Clarin article basically just says that David is now using the swimming pool of the "Centre for High Performance" at the "Cordoba Sports Agency" and quotes David as saying that the pool they have is big enough to train comfortably and that he can exercise together with other athletes. It also says that the first stage of training is over now and that he's getting ready to train harder.
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