Rafael Nadal’s reaction after his shock semifinal exit at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters:

I played a very bad game against a good player, so in that situation, you have to lose. That’s what I did this afternoon.

No, was a bad feeling. Was a tough day and was a difficult opponent. I am coming from low moments in terms of injuries, and in terms of the mental side have been not easy to accept all the things that have been going on during the last times.

So just was this kind of day that everything was wrong. I probably played one of the worst matches on clay in 14 years. So when that happens, you have to lose. And today I deserve to lose because I played against a player that was better than me today.

I was lucky to win that two games and to avoid the even worse score. But the final result is the same, so don’t make a big difference. I was not thinking much. Just thinking about how bad I played today and just to, at some point, understand the things.

Problem sometimes is we are used to be very, very solid all the time, and even coming back from injuries, winning and winning and winning, and things are not easy, no?

And after one year and a half, without having the chance to play tournaments in a row and a lot of stuff happened, is more difficult to hold sometimes the level every single day when you don’t have confidence in tournaments in a row, no, or matches in a row.

And that’s what I needed probably to know that the half level, I have it. Even if I have been very competitive all the tournaments that I have been playing, all these stops create some nonstability in terms of you know that you have this 60 or 70% of your level, 100%.

Then some days you have that 90 or 100, but this 70, you have it always. That’s why I have been able to win all the things that I won, especially on clay. And today seems like I had during the previous days, but is always more difficult when all these things are going on.

Source: metro.co.uk