Rafa in a press conference in Brazil from a couple of days ago, talking about his injury problem and the doping issue:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=ck61ljNUtyc&feature=endscreen
“[…]Worries are logical and doubts are logical, no?. But it’s true that Guga, unfortunately, had to stop because of a problem, I think that very serious, in his hip. My problem is different, no?, I’m not with such a serious problem, it simply is a problem as of today, of pain in the tendon, the problem I’ve had in the knee is very well, according to the doctors. The problem is that the tendon still hurts me, many days, and there are days when it does limit me physically somewhat. But the truth is I don’t think I’m in a similar situation (to Guga’s). I’ve got much confidence that this is going to get better, that… I have it (the confidence) and the doctors have it, which is the most important. So, I’m not worried that this might be a problem for the future. The only thing that worries me is the time that it will take me to be perfect. Because the tennis career is a career which isn’t… of 25 years, like golf, it’s a career which has a limited time, and what I hope for is to be well, to be without physical problems, to have the opportunity of being able to work as much as I want and to compete as much as I want in the… shortest time span possible. That is where we are, and today we are better than we were four months ago. But I need time and confidence in that everything will work out fine”.
To some another question (clearly about the doping issue): “I’ve said it in the past, no?, I think that … that the sport with the terrible news that has happened with Armstrong, well, sport ends up harmed always, when what is theory was a myth, well, it’s discovered it was, that in the end the myth was through cheating, no?. So let’s no deceive ourselves. But also, it’s cycling that’s especially damaged, not sport in general. I think that not because of (some kind of laugh or something) some sinners we have to be all tarred with the same brush, first, and second, (anti-doping) controls, as many as necessary, however many that is, without a doubt, because at the end, I want to be sure, I think everyone wants to be sure, that the person who’s in front of you on a tennis court, running besides you on an athletics’ track, besides you on cycling, on any sport, is in the same conditions in which you are. And for that to happen, controls have to be, from my point of view, public. Because if controls are private, we’ve got a problem, which is that Federer comes out and says that we have to have more controls, with which, when this happens, people don’t know of how many controls we’re talking about. I think that as of today, the only thing we can do is to work all along the same lines, to work all of us to clean the image of sport, which has been damaged, I think sport has to be an example for children, an example for society, an example of positive values and of education for life, and cheating doesn’t represent any of these. Which, for me, if we have to pass one control every week, there’s no problem, I support to have a many controls as necessary for sport to be clean, but mainly support that the controls are public, that everyone ho is here, everyone in the street, can know how many controls we’ve passed a year, of blood and urine, otherwise… at the end we’ll have the same problem, and sport, first, has to be clean, but it also has to look it. For it to look it, we all have to know the controls which everyone goes through, and so, you’ll see, or you’ll know, what really is or what is not. Controls, however many they are, with maximum respect also always, I think there are times when they are disrespectful”.
