PARIS—Rafael Nadal would probably not have played any Grand Slam other than the French Open with the chronic foot injury that needed numbing injections in Paris, the 14-time Roland Garros champion said on Monday.
The Spaniard’s record-extending triumph on the Paris clay earned him an all-time best 22nd men’s singles major with a 6–3 6–3 6–0 crushing of Norway’s Casper Ruud and put him two titles clear of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
It was the “most unexpected” of his French Open titles, Nadal told Reuters on Monday after limping into the scintillating salon of a central Paris hotel.
Asked if he would have played any other Grand Slam with the injury that forced him to have injections to numb his foot, Nadal said: “Probably not.”…