Rafael Nadal says he was happy with his effort and prospects going forward this season despite suffering a shock fourth-around loss at the US Open to Frenchman Lucas Pouille.
Advertisement
On the one hand, you had a boisterous Arthur Ashe stadium that seemed a little punch-drunk at getting to witness an all-time classic in the first week of the tournament itself.
The match finished just after midnight local time after the Nadal-Pouille marathon caused the evening session to be delayed by an hour and a half.
At his best, Nadal’s trademark, unique heavy spin game is famous for its ability to push opponents and put the ball in tough positions like no other, and his aura and the fear of his spinning strokes have often helped him out the few times he fell into the trend of hitting without the requisite length. And when he arrived for his press conference, he looked like he wanted to take a battering ram and beat everyone around him to death with it. But for Nadal, it was a disaster of epic proportions. Pouille did exactly that.
While Nadal failed to execute on countless occasions on Sunday, and his serve continues to be a problem in tight moments, from a purely strategic standpoint Nadal played a smart match. “Doesn’t matter if I had the injuries or not, no?”
“It took everything. I could not dream better than that.”
“I felt I played a little bad, to be honest”, said Kvitova. He vouched to make certain changes to his game to seek better results against formidable opponents in future tourney. I know what’s going on. Can he add to his collection of 14 grand slam titles? “I’m 30 years old, after having the career that I have, is not a question of pressure”.
“When it’s happen it will be unbelievable feeling because that was also one of my dreams”.
Rafael Nadal is well known for his success in majors.
But could the pressure of his recent close losses have been eating at his head, with the pressure getting magnified on the biggest of stages?
After winning back-to-back five-setters in the second and third rounds at Flushing Meadows, he was ready to go the distance against Nadal.
Nadal’s greatest strength is his level-headedness, which along with his instilled and ingrained work ethic have allowed him to stay focused and calm even as the twin storms of injury and now age roil his journey.
The forehand errors in the tiebreaker were, in the simplest of terms, completely un-Rafa-like.
There was a time when the Spaniard was virtually unbeatable in fifth sets.
If only we had the wisdom of Nadal himself. “That’s it. You can not go insane thinking about these kind of things, no?” You have a mistake. Then he staved off a trio of match points.
Nadal acknowledged that his sloppy forehand was “a big mistake”. At the end of the day, nobody remembers that. But, you know, he’s like every players.
Advertisement
However, it was Pouille who started the stronger of the two as he broke Nadal’s serve twice on the way to wrapping up the opener in just 28 minutes. But the hell of it for Nadal – or any great athlete – is simply that the mental focus and emotions and body all have to be healthy in order to reset to the once familiar championship state.
