Rafael Nadal has stepped down as vice president of the ATP players council in what can only be described as a good, yet surprising, move.
Nadal has been fighting for a two year ranking calender to help preserve the playing lifetime of tennis’ athletes and yet he seems to fail to find the support of president Roger Federer and other head honchos in the ATP. Despite having significant player support for reducing the work load on the players Nadal’s pleas continue to be ignored.
He drew a huge amount of media and fan attention to the issue by mildly airing his grievance with Federer in the press at the Australian Open. Now, with a continued lack in progress, Nadal is sensibly walking away – gaining more attention by doing so because no-one saw it coming and Nadal so rarely rocks the boat.
It’s a smart move for the Spaniard who seems to be making significant efforts to cut back on his schedule this year in an attempt to preserve his energy and direct it at the Grand Slams and the Olympics.
Nadal took all of February off to rest and rehab his body and despite the fact that he is still nursing some physical problems he appears to have re-found his passion for the game.
By removing himself from the council and not playing Davis Cup, Rafa is removing energy and time sapping things from his already 
tightly packed schedule.
Hopefully he will reap the rewards of this intelligent move.
Q. It’s rumored that you stepped down from the ATP player council. Can you just explain to us about why you made that decision.
RAFAEL NADAL: Well, I have been there for a couple of years. You know, I really don’t know how to do things without put my 100%.
So if I go to play golf, I try my best in every moment. If I go to the player council, you know, I try my best in the player council. I put all my energy there.
So last year at the end of the season, you know, was a lot of things there. You know, finally I believe I put too much energy there. I am happy to represent my players there for the last couple of years.
I believe that we did few things well for the sport. I believe it’s not enough. So today I believe that I am not the right one to keep working there. So I think another people can do better than me today.”
“I am not frustrated. I believe that we can do much more things than what we have done. … my feeling is a great opportunity to improve the sport, because today the players are very unified.”
