- Title: NADAL-RONALDO/POKER Nadal and Ronaldo play poker
- Date: 18th November 2014
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (NOVEMBER 18, 2014) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** RAFAEL NADAL (RIGHT) AND RONALDO SHAKE HANDS BEFORE THEIR POKER MATCH VARIOUS OF THEIR GAME IN PROGRESS MEDIA GATHERED FOR NEWS CONFERENCE RAFAEL NADAL SITTING CAMERA (SOUNDBITE) (English) RAFAEL NADAL SAYING: "I've got to work for it, that's my goal. I need say ten to twelve days to start again practising, so I'm going to have all the month of December to try to put my tennis and my body at the right level to be competitive at the beginning of January. That's my goal, I'm going to work a lot in December and I hope to be healthy too to work as much as I need and as much as I want. If that happens, I really feel confident that I can come back strong." CAMERA (SOUNDBITE) (English) RAFAEL NADAL SAYING: "I had the problem in Australia, as you know in the final. During this year, I had some periods off, during the year that I had some problems in the back. So, it's true during this month, I didn't have the chance to compete and all the things that happened to me, especially the last one, and I should have renounced the chance to play the last part of the season. I have time enough to try to fix my back hundred per cent again, and that's what I am trying." CAMERAS (SOUNDBITE) (English) RAFAEL NADAL SAYING: "Seriously, I didn't see the match against Wawrinka, so no opinion about that. And the only thing for sure that is negative is the tournament like happened here in London, no final is bad news for everybody, for the tournament, for the fans, for all the world of tennis and especially for him too, for Roger. So, sorry for him, I wish him a quick recovery and that's it. I think it was really strange quarter-finals (group stage), strangest one that I've ever seen. The matches were not - normally, when you play against the best top eight players of the world, the matches should be close, they should be emotional. In this tournament, no one match was like this, only the Roger against Stan in the semi-finals, but for the rest, it was a little bit strange." RAFAEL NADAL LEAVES THE PRESS CONFERENCE
- Embargoed: 3rd December 2014 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVAKX8LZLRNNRF1EWNHBE9HKY9K
- Story Text: Tennis star Rafael Nadal of Spain and former Brazil soccer legend Ronaldo met in London, UK on Tuesday (November 18) to play a challenge game of poker.
The PokerStars promoted event at a casino in central London saw Nadal, currently recovering from an operation to remove his appendix, and Ronaldo, who helped Brazil win the World Cup in 2002, compete in a light-hearted match.
After the conclusion of it, Nadal spoke about returning to tennis after a year plagued by injury as well as the appendix operation which took place earlier this month.
"I've got to work for it, that's my goal," he said. "I need say ten to twelve days to start again practising, so I'm going to have all the month of December to try to put my tennis and my body at the right level to be competitive at the beginning of January. That's my goal, I'm going to work a lot in December and I hope to be healthy too to work as much as I need and as much as I want. If that happens, I really feel confident that I can come back strong."
The 28-year-old has suffered with back problems in 2014, most notably during the Australian Open final when he lost to Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka. He is hoping that the his enforced lay-off because of the operation will give him enough time to resolve the issue with his back.
"I had the problem in Australia, as you know in the final. During this year, I had some periods off, during the year that I had some problems in the back. So, it's true during this month, I didn't have the chance to compete and all the things that happened to me, especially the last one, and I should have renounced the chance to play the last part of the season. I have time enough to try to fix my back hundred per cent again, and that's what I am trying."
The last tournament Nadal missed was the ATP Tour Finals, also in London, which concluded in an unsatisfactory way when Swiss Roger Federer pulled out of the final against Serb Novak Djokovic with an injury.
The previous day, during Federer's semi-final encounter with Wawrinka, which Federer won 4-6 7-5 7-6(6), TV footage showed Wawrinka asking Federer's box to keep quiet between serves and complaining to chair umpire Cedric Mourier that his opponent's wife Mirka had heckled him.
Nadal admitted that he had not seen that match, but he was concerned that the tournament which featured the eight top-ranked players, produced so few competitive matches, with just four of the 14 singles matches played going to three sets as well as the final not being played.
"The only thing for sure that is negative is the tournament like happened here in London, no final is bad news for everybody, for the tournament, for the fans, for all the world of tennis and especially for him too, for Roger. So, sorry for him, I wish him a quick recovery and that's it. I think it was really strange quarter-finals (group stage), strangest one that I've ever seen. The matches were not - normally, when you play against the best top eight players of the world, the matches should be close, they should be emotional. In this tournament, no one match was like this, only the Roger against Stan in the semi-finals, but for the rest, it was a little bit strange," said Nadal.
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