Rafael Nadal – “Today Was The Best Match I’ve Made This Season on Clay”

The World Number two tennis player, Rafael Nadal has been once again obstructed from winning his first ATP title of the season at Barcelona Open 2019. The Austrian, Dominic Thiem knocked him down 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals of Catalonian ATP 500 event. It was an arduous match for the Spaniard today in front of his home crowd.

Rafael Nadal failed to generate a single break point until Thiem was serving for the match. However, those three break points were saved by the Austrian and later, he served out the match. With this win, Dominic Thiem has defeated Rafael Nadal on clay for the fourth straight year and wound up his hopes for the 12th crown in Barcelona on the Pista Rafa Nadal. 

After Rafael Nadal lost his first ever semifinal match in Barcelona, he revealed about not having any regrets about his defeat and he is satisfied with his game. Also, he feels it was his best match of this clay season.

“The sensations have gone better, I have once again enjoyed playing tennis,” Rafael Nadal said. “I’ve been competitive until the end but I lost to a top-level player. I have laid a foundation to be able to aspire to what is coming. Today was the best match I’ve made this season on clay.”

Rafael Nadal was distressed with his last week’s performance in Monaco where he stated it was his worst matches on clay in 14 years after losing to Fabio Fognini in the semifinals of  Rolex Monte-Carlo 2019. However, this week Rafael Nadal seems contented with his gameplay and he isn’t remorseful about his defeat to the NextGen player, Dominic Thiem.

“At this point in my career, I no longer focus so much on the rivals who beat me. Losing hurts the same, whether it’s against number 7 or number 500 in the world. Fognini and Thiem are two great players, but I know that if I’m at my best I know I can beat them,” Rafael Nadal added.

However, he is unhappy with is service games today and was a little skeptic with his game. “The serve was an important part of the match this afternoon,” Rafael Nadal said. “I didn’t serve well at all, especially the second serve. So when I started to miss the second serve, I really lost a little bit of the confidence on trying to go for a good first serve, because I was without confidence on the second, so that affects the first.”

The Spaniard was wax lyrical about Dominic Thiem and expects him to soon be on the apex of tennis. “He’s a good player. He’s a hard worker. So I would love to see him be number one. I like him in all terms, as a tennis player, as a hard worker, as a person. So I wish him all the very best for his future, but not everything. I hope to be ready to compete against him and to beat him in the next couple of weeks,” Rafael Nadal said.

Up next, the Russian, Daniil Medvedev, who just won a single match on clay in 2018 is now through to the finals of Barcelona Open 2019. He knocked down the Japanese Number one, Kei Nishikori who was chasing his third title in Barcelona. Thiem and Medvedev have met just once in St. Petersburg Open 2018 and over there Thiem won in three sets.