At Indian Wells, Rafael Nadal managed to down Russian tennis player Karen Khachanov in straight sets. The final score read 7-6, 7-6 in the Spaniard’s favour and now, he will advance to the semifinals.
However, the win did not come easily for the former World Number 1. As it turns out, mid-match, he was forced to call his trainer to treat an inflammation of the patellar tendon. In simpler terms, he was worried about contracting yet another knee injury.
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Rafael Nadal is one of the biggest critics of the ATP schedule this year. Although, he is primarily a clay court specialist, Nadal has no qualms about hard court tennis. However, he did admit that while he has not problems with hard courts, he isn’t sure how well these courts treat him and his body.
“Probably it’s more than 1,100 matches on tour, more than any surface,” the 32-year-old Spaniard said, speaking to Times Now.
“I love to play on hard, but probably my body don’t love it that much,” Nadal said. “And my feeling is there are a lot of players that love to play on hard, true, but their bodies don’t love to play on hard, either.”
While speaking to the BNP Paribas website, he admitted, “If you check all the sports, there is no other sport that plays at the highest level on a surface as hard as we do in tennis, with all the aggressive movements that we do. It would be better if in 15-20 years we find a solution and play on softer surfaces”
After downing Khachanov, he will be going up against arch-rival Roger Federer in the semifinal. He also spoke about the impending clash with the Swiss ace, “Even if it’s a match between me and Roger, and it’s special because of what we shared, it’s still another tennis match, we are not going to play chess”
In conclusion, if Nadal manages to beat Federer and possibly win the Indian Wells Masters, he can get a step closer to Novak Djokovic.
