Rafael Nadal cares about winning but he's always maintained that other things are more impotant than that with legacy the main one.
Currently, Nadal is travelling through South America with Casper Ruud to give his fans a taste of what they have been missing in previous years. Since there aren't many major tennis competitions in South America and it's a somewhat difficult tennis voyage there, Nadal hasn't played there very often in recent times. Nevertheless, the Tour is intended to uphold his legacy in a continent that adores him.
“I don’t think about it. I think it’s something that takes a backseat,” said Nadal when asked about being the best player of all time. “The important legacy is that all the people I have met during these 20 years of my career have a good human memory of me."
“At the end of the day, the personal issue, education, respect and
the affection with which you can treat people comes before the
professional issue, because that is what remains [after you have
retired]," added Nadal.
Nadal finished the year as number two narrowly missing out on being number one in the world and he doesn't think it's something that he'll ever get back to: “I don’t think it’s going to be a trend. It’s difficult to maintain such a high level. I play very few events at this stage, so it’s difficult to maintain a very high ranking because you have to be very accurate in the events where you compete.”
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