Maria Sharapova Reveals the Reason Behind Not Following Rafael Nadal on Instagram

Published 09/30/2019, 1:46 PM EDT

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Former world No.1 Maria Sharapova draws her inspiration from the 19-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal as she called him the ‘ultimate fighter’ and was impressed by his incredible recovering power as she was aiming to come back to the WTA tour after recovering from her injury in June.

However, to a fan surprise, the Russian does not follow Rafael Nadal on Instagram. Maria Sharapova has 3.6 million followers on the photo and video-sharing social networking site. While she follows over 500 people and to everyone’s amaze the Spaniard was nowhere to be found on the list.

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The five-time Grand Slam champion likes to interacts with her fans on Instagram stories. In one of her stories a fan recently asked her, “How come you don’t follow Nadal on IG (Instagram)”?

The 32-year-old made sense when she cleared that she does not follow a majority of spokesperson and not specifically Rafael Nadal as the Russian just want to disconnect with sports on social media. “Much of my life is filled with sport in general, so it’s nice to open an app which disconnects me from it by choice,” Sharapova said.

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Earlier, Maria Sharapova had explained that Rafael Nadal’s renaissance is an inspiration to her as she was eyeing to resume her injury-hit career at the 2019 Mallorca Open in June.

Praising Rafael Nadal’s recovering skills, Sharapova said: “He is the ultimate fighter and an amazing example of what you can achieve if you have the will and the passion for what you do.”

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The Russian further revealed her admiration for the 33-year-old. She continued, “I’ve always admired the way he has fought through all the injuries he’s had and he’s the greatest example of that.”

Sharapova further concluded: “The sport is so physical, especially the way he plays, but brings an optimistic perspective on his work that he can come back and be a champion. He is extremely motivated.”

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Written by:

Varun Khanna

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Starting off as a tennis author in 2018, Varun Khanna has gone on to contribute to EssentiallySports in various capacities. After setting up interviews with the likes of Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou, Alizé Cornet, and Noah Rubin, Varun is now part of all major ATP and WTA press conferences and has gone on to pen more than 1300 articles for EssentiallySports. He now heads the tennis and NBA division of the organization.
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