Rafael Nadal says that winning the 2011 Australian Open is firmly on his mind and frightens him a little, as if he does so, he'll become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to win four straight majors.
"I am very demanding of myself, but obviously this has been the best season of my career and I played my best," the Spaniard said on Spanish radio.
"It's bit scary to think that if I win in Australia I would close the circle of four Grand Slams in a row, but what's also scary is that I have already won three straight. I'm training and playing pretty well, but until I arrive in Australia, anything can happen. I will not deceive you, for me is a big dream to get there and try to play well and compete to reach the finals and once you're there anything can happen. It might be the only opportunity to win four straight because I am not Rod Laver, who did it twice. The truth is that it is a unique opportunity and as always I will get well prepared and try to play well every day."
Even though the ATP will reduce the calendar by two weeks in 2012, Nadal once again criticized the length of the season, saying that "schedule favors short careers" and that the people who are leading the sport are making a "big error" not to try to lengthen careers. "It's something that should change," he said. "We play with too much tension [and] play from January 3 until November 30 without stopping."
Olympic gold medalist Nadal also tore into the International Olympic Committee for not paying athletes from smaller sports who don't earn as much as pro athletes away from the games.
"Winning in Beijing was a beautiful moment for me, but you also realize the effort involved for all athletes," he said. "We are lucky that we have a spectacular circuit, and the basketball players have the same luck, but there are many athletes living on the edge and all they have is the dream of training each day to reach the Olympics. I think it's a great injustice that the International Olympic Committee gives so little reward to athletes who make all that effort. I think it should have to pay them much more...The IOC itself makes a veritable fortune and the least we could do is reward to all those athletes."—Matthew Cronin