Q. You have now played Roger twice this season, and so many times in the past. Does he seem this year to you, from how he’s played in those two matches, more relaxed than he was in the past on court?
RAFAEL NADAL: I don’t know. In Australia was a very close match. I had good chances to win. Today, not. Today he played better than me. I didn’t play my best match, and he played well.
These kind of matches, when you’re not playing your match, is impossible to win.
Q. The way he’s hitting his backhand, and you sort of changing your serving variation a bit, has that changed the way you two match up?
RAFAEL NADAL: The way what?
Q. The way you two match up. The way he’s hitting his backhand and you changing your serving patterns a little bit, has that changed the matchup?
RAFAEL NADAL: No. I think was always that he returned well. But at the same time, it was obvious that I didn’t have the right answer for his returns, no? I needed to neutralize the points. I needed to neutralize his two first balls, and I didn’t.
So then playing two shots, he’s better than me today. And five years ago, ten years ago, always was better than me, no?
I was a little bit better than him in general when I neutralized the first two shots, and then I can manage it a little bit better the point, no?
So I was not enough good tonight to make that happen, and he deserved the victory, for sure. Very easy.
Q. On this court with high bounce it would be an advantage for you. Were you surprised the court wasn’t helping your game more than with this?
RAFAEL NADAL: Is always the same. You need to play well.
The court or doesn’t matter the surface. You need to play your best if you want to have chances to win, and I did not play my best. It’s obvious that I have to congratulate him because he played a great match.
But I have to think from my side, and I think I can do it much better, and I think I gonna do it much better next time.
Q. Do you see a certain difference the way Roger plays against you on the backhand side since he has a bigger racquet, racquet size?
RAFAEL NADAL: You have to speak to him. I don’t know about his racquet. I don’t know about these things.
He’s always played well, very aggressive, and his backhand was enough good to win the match.
But at the same time it’s obvious, as I said before, no, I need to hit longer and I need to hit higher, longer to create him problems, no?
I was not able to do that, and then he was advantage. The main thing he take the break in the first game, and I had break point in the next game and come back and he had a good serve.
When Roger have advantage, his serve is so good, he has a lot of confidence with his serve, he’s able to play much more relaxed, no?
Worst thing in that match for me was from the beginning I was in disadvantage breaking the first game of the match, and then breaking the second game of the second set. So that’s so difficult to play against Roger this way.
Q. ITF is debating changing Davis Cup to best of three-set matches instead of best of five. Would that make it easier for you and other top players to play Davis Cup?
RAFAEL NADAL: I don’t want to talk about that today. Sorry. Sorry. No, no. I spoke about that earlier. Maybe you were not here, but I spoke for a long answer of that question, so you can check it.
As I said the other day, it was not right the way that the people write it, I think was not right. I said the good thing is the new start, the new president, is trying to do changes, and that’s always going to be good. I don’t know if the changes are the right ones or not, but any change will be good, because it’s always that with the old format things were not going enough well for Davis Cup.
But there is issues that can be better.
Q. With Roger getting the early first breaks, how did that affect your mentality with respect to going for more on your serves today?
RAFAEL NADAL: Repeat? Sorry.
Q. Roger getting the early breaks and you’ve been working to increase the velocity of your serves this week, we have been seeing success with that, but having that pressure of him already being up a break, how did that affect you mentally in deciding to go for more?
RAFAEL NADAL: Not mentally. But it’s about tennis. It’s about the mental part in this case. No, I was there. I was fighting. I was trying to find solutions. I tried to serve quicker. I tried to serve changing more directions, and I was trying to return inside and in the back.
Was not today. That’s all.
Q. After a loss like this, do you go over it, do you think about it for a long time, or are you able to quickly put it behind you?
RAFAEL NADAL: No. A lot of years here. When you feel that you are playing bad or you are in a bad moment, maybe stays a little bit longer in your mind. Is not my case, no?
I started great the season, playing great tennis, winning a lot of matches, playing good tennis.
Today I didn’t play my best, but I am really confident I gonna play well in Miami this week.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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Crikey ! Is it contagious (Lol )😷👈
Lots of tennis elbow going on at mo it seems. Roger, Rafa and stan are in mami so far it seems and andy and novak are not. Let’s hope rafa makes the most of this!
Murray has withdrawn from Miami too! Wtf is going on
Right not write ( below) duh
Right not write
Loving Rafas’s outfit for the clay court season, violet and orange top /white shorts and orange trainers then again he always looks great whatever he wears (sorry to anyone who is only interested in the tennis ) . If I have read this write if Roger takes the title tomorrow he will go from No. 10 to 6 taking Rafas’s spot.😖
I hope Rafa can find a solution to Rogers new style. Right now Fed is the best out of the big 4 and his ego is off the charts atm lol
Whether Novak plays next week or not I don’t think it matters so much now, as there are plenty of others out there that are a threat to Rafa getting his hands on another trophy . Novak has apparently been suffering since last June from a right elbow injury . I thought it might have been more recent and from his match with Kyrgios , it’s know as a bruised ego (joke)
Djokovic might withdraw from Miami as he’s suffering from an injury 🤔
If stan has a good couple of days he should do it and I hope he does. But he’s unpredictable so as maria siberia says …. hmmmmm we will see.
I hope both Jack and Stan have a great day today. If Jack whoops Roger today, I’m with Jack tomorrow. If not, then Stan is the man for tomorrow.
RAFA, WHO ARE YOU ROOTING FOR?
Rafa, you know you are my numero uno, and as my sign can attest to I am a loyal fan no matter if you win or lose. You are out of IW so I am now rooting for Jack Sock.
Yep, Jack. I have been quietly following him lately and think he has a chance.
Miss you already Rafa. Your positivity and self-assured comments, post IW, have my hopes for you in the troposphere.
GOOD LUCK AT MIAMI
RAFA ROCKS
Another example. Please don’t be mad . Just wanted to share.
https://www.google.at/amp/www.sportskeeda.com/amp/tennis/scientific-astrologer-predicts-roger-federer-will-claim-his-18th-grand-slam-crown
Still hoping for Rafa! He’ll always by no. 1 for me.
No reason for anyone to be angry, in my opinion.
What is not needed is mean spirited, ugly and nasty comments of which you’ve never been guilty of from what I have read. Thank goodness the former types of “fans” are no longer here.
RAFA ROCKS ON
Thank goodness, Margo. Thank goodness.
But as always, we;d see……..hmmnn
Hope Rafa’s confidence about Miami will lead him to his first title there.
I think Rafa hasn’t played well after the AO; his level can just go up and down from match to match. Perhaps his efforts now are concentrated at the slams; he really played very well at the AO, not his 2014 or 2012 level yet but was still good enough to reach the final. Maybe BO5 suits him more now, giving him more time to think and to work his way into his matches.
I really look forward to the clay season, for its on clay that he usually regains his confidence, like in 2010, 2012, 2013 and last year starting with MC and then Barcelona.
http://sportpulse.net/astrologer-says-20-grand-slams-federer-“very-possible”-9882/
Read this a while ago
Anyway always Rafa for me. Maybe we fans could try to put out more and more positives in the universe for Rafa. Horoscopes not always correct but considering Federer’s luck in his career ….. not taking away his obvious talent. That he definitely has but ……
VAMOS
LOL Either you or I have ESP. I was just mentally formulating a comment to post here when your comment popped up. I, too, was going to include an in depth astrological element but since I know so little of that subject, I said forgetaboutit. LOL
RAFS ROCKS
I doubt Fed could get to 20 slams; perhaps only when he could take six months off and comes back to win one, for the next one or two years. Not going to happen, as he gets older and older and guys like Nick and Alex will be taking over from Djoko/Murray/Rafa.
It seems to me that the trio are going downhill from here, I mean Murray couldn’t even reach the QF of the past two slams? And Djoko losing early at Wimbledon and then his favorite AO? Rafa may have a revival but that’s not confirmed yet until we see him on clay and winning the FO.
Fed may still have his chances at Wimbledon but he may just lose it to a big server cum big hitter, the likes of Cilic, Kyrgios. Cilic almost got him last year but choked away. I think both Djoko and Murray couldn’t stop this Fed at Wimbledon this time, so let’s see anyone else, esp from the younger generation, could do the job of beating Fed at Wimbledon.
And another one bites the dust, number 5 seed Kei Nishikori is the latest to be dispersed.😞 Stan the Man to go 🏆all the way now .
What a shame for Nick. Hope he’ll be okay soon. 🍀
As for Fed, if you think about it somehow he seems to be the luckest player on tour, from having no serious injuries in his 18 year career except the latest one and his emergence at the “transitional period” to many “petty” stuff over the years. And even in years as early as 2004-2005 people were already willing to hail him as “The Greatest Ever”/GOAT.
But even the GOAT still needs luck. Guess the title is his to lose now. The extraodinary comeback of the 35 year old tennis GOAT continues…
I hope he’s ok. He owes us a semi-final though. Lol
I don’t know Susie , if you would have asked me last week I would have said it wasn’t genuine ,but now I’m in two minds, but I can’t find a reason why he would back out as the way he’s been playing I think he could have won the tournament. I don’t wish food poisoning on him but I hope it is true , not that maybe the hunger isn’t there or the pay check was enough ,he has said in the past that once he has won a grandslam he will give up tennis.( Maybe there was a basketball match on he wanted to watch Lol) I’m not on Twitter but he has put out a statement , I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt (this time) and as our great friend Maria(Siberia) would say Hmn…. But we’ll see.😨😷😨😷😰😷
Yeah pretty sure Kyrgios is genuine he’s never afraid to play the big guys tbh but doesn’t take away the fact that Federer is super lucky
Great minds maria. Of course it musta been those chips – oh no and I checked it out yesterday as you advised. What a shame for nick. Do you think it’s genuine? Is he the type to chicken out? Don’t know that much about him except for the obvious but it’s strange timing and he could have had a great chance at winning this. I’m erring on the side it’s genuine and he must be pretty gutted