TENNIS - Benito Barbadillo, Nadal's media manager, answered to Ubitennis readers in a live chat. He revealed Rafa had stomach bugs and skipped ten days of practice. Doping allegations are what annoyed Barbadillo the most. He said Rafa was tested many times during these months. ITF and WADA should say more clearly how many times and when players have been tested.

Benito Barbadillo, Nadal's media manager, answered to Ubitennis readers about Nadal's conditions and doping allegations. He said they knew since USO the season was over, but didn't say so 'cause Rafa hoped still to play. Barbadillo explained that the knee is what kept Nadal out for 6 months: Rafa trained hard before the 20 Dec, the knee will be 100% in the next weeks. However, Nadal had stomach bugs and he trained on December 31 for the first time after December 20. Rafa played golf, and the day was cold. He didn't feel well at dinner. He had a temperature for 3 days and doctors said he had to rest. So, "Rafa won't go to the Australian Open because he wants to come back when he can play well, when he feels right, and not when he skips ten days of practice. This doesn't mean he'll come back when he'll be able to win, because winning depends on many factors, but when he'll be able to play feeling good sensations". He can comeback in Acapulco or ever earlier in South America.

Doping allegations are what annoy Barbadillo the most. He said that whoever dopes must be punished, whatever his nationality. Many people criticized the Spanish anti-doping law, perceived as weak. "I'd like to see how many of them have read every anti-doping law of every country in the world", Barbadillo said. "However, we are tested by WADA. We think that WADA and ITF should say more clearly the type and amount of every indivudual test. This is transparency. Nadal has been tested even four times in a week during these six months" Barbadillo revealed.

Ubaldo Scanagatta asked then why Federer, Djokovic and Nadal, when they were in the Players' Council, didn't do enough to obtain more openness. "Because they were on the ATP council", Barbadillo answered, "they have no power on ITF. Questions should be asked to ITF, not to players".

Nadal has been criticized for his public support to Contador, found guilty of doping. "Rafa says what he thinks" Barbadillo said. "If he would have asked me, I would have suggested not to say anything publicly. But Rafa isn't malicious, and Rafa decided to support a sporsman he knows and say it publicly, and that proofs his conscience is clean: if he would have been "dirty" he wouldn't have said anything. Everybody who is doped, everybody who is cheating must be punished for me: it doesn't count if he's Spanish, American, Italian or Chinese".

He explained also Nadal's conditions since the Roland Garros. "At the French Open he took painkillers in the last two matches. Then, after what he considers his best French Open ever, he played in Halle, also because of his commitment with the tournament. Then he came back in Mallorca before Wimbledon. He felt a lot of pain also in practice, but you can't say you feel pain to other players" he explained.

"In Wimbledon, it happened what you all know very well. Then, he wants to play the Olympics, even feeling pain, and until he tried everything to be there. But he couldn't play. He trained also hoping to comeback for the Us Open. At that moment, there was a meeting in Vitoria with the doctors Cotorro and Mikel Sanchez, Carlos Costa, his physio, his trainer, his uncle and his father, to decide what to do. And we decided Rafa wouldn't have undergone a surgery and opted for a conservative treatment. Because we hadn't any guarantees that surgery would have solved the problem. We said that Nadal would have been out for three months, though it was quite easy to realize that three months almost certainly meant his season was over, though he hoped to be able to play the ATP Finals or the Davis Cup final".