THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. A tough match tonight. Did you feel as the match went longer you just lacked a little bit of energy towards the end and that’s why Daniil was the winner tonight?
RAFAEL NADAL: No. I don’t think that way, no. I think at the beginning of the match he was better than me. I was able to save my serves with troubles, but then I played well to have the break and then to close the set, no?
In the second a little bit the same story at the beginning, but at the end of the set I was playing a little bit better than him, and then in the 5-4 I think he played a good game and I didn’t. I played a bad game. That’s it, no? But I had a big opportunity. I lost a big opportunity.
Well done to him. He’s playing great. I wish him all the best.
Q. Are you okay physically? Looked like maybe something happened towards the end of the match.
RAFAEL NADAL: No, it’s all good. Thank you (smiling).
Q. Just to go forward a bit, Australian Open, we don’t know when that’s going to take place. You didn’t travel to New York this year. Are there any circumstances where you wouldn’t travel to Melbourne to play in the Aussie Open next year?
RAFAEL NADAL: I don’t know what’s the situation gonna be yet, no? We need to wait about what the government there in Victoria says. We can’t do much from ATP position or just wait. We have nobody to say what they feels is better for his country, no?
We just need to be patient and accept the situation that we are facing. That is difficult for everyone. We need to be flexible to understand the situation and to find a way to play as many tournaments as possible next year, no, to continue with the tour, to try to help the tournaments, to help the players, the lower-ranked players to keep having job, and at the same time all the staff that they are living from our sport. Not only tennis players, no? All the people who are around, no?
So let’s try to be flexible in all ways. Players, tournaments is a special situation. Hopefully with the vaccine that ends soon and we can come back at least to close to normal in a couple of months, but now is a difficult situation. Just hopefully the situation gets better and we can come back to a normal tour.
Q. Bad luck. After one hour and 24 minutes you were serving for the match. Is a player also like you feeling a lot of pressure in a situation? How do you explain otherwise how you could lose a Love game when you’re close to make the final? Is that the pressure?
RAFAEL NADAL: I don’t know. I think I achieved enough to not find an excuse about the pressure.
I know I won enough matches and enough tournaments in an even more difficult situation than this one and even in more important matches than tonight. So I don’t feel that way.
I feel I played a bad game. Of course you are nervous to win the match. But not me. Everybody. Is normal to have the tension. I think he played some good points and I make a couple of mistakes.
And that’s it, and then he played a good tiebreak. Yeah. And I played, I should be winning my serve in the third, the one that I lost. I had easy volley to close the game.
Small details makes a big difference. Just well done for him and not enough good for me.
Q. Do you ever think it’s a bit unfair that the Finals are always being played on hard court? Because maybe like if they would be played on clay once every three years you would already won the tournaments? Do you ever get frustrated about that?
RAFAEL NADAL: Now is not the moment to talk about that. I am a player to accept what the surface it is. I have my personal opinion, but is not the moment.
I just lost semifinal. I had my chances. I was close to play another final here. I was not enough good in the moment to close the match. That’s it. Other stuff doesn’t matter (smiling).
Q. Could you just reflect on the season you have had? You won the 20th Grand Slam at the French Open. Given all you have achieved, does that make it easier or harder to set goals for yourself in the next year?
RAFAEL NADAL: The same as always. Not easier, not harder. No, no, my goal is always the same: to go to every tournament and to give myself a chance to compete well and to try to win it.
That’s the goal of every year. My motivation have been always the same. Next year gonna be an important year. I hope to be ready to fight for the things that I want to fight. I’m going to work hard during the off-season to be ready for the beginning.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
Just posted on Twitter
Congratulations to Rafael Nadal who has received the Grand Cross of the Order of Dos de Mayo (Madrid’s highest honour) First place medal
The award recognises his sporting achievements, values and merits as a person.
#DavisCup |
@RafaelNadal
👏🤗
I read a few weeks ago that this was going to happen, but I wasn’t sure if Rafa would go to Madrid to receive it in person. I’m very glad to see that he did and that there were people there to give him some well-deserved applause 🙂
Yesterday I forgot to post the following. What worries me is that a hotel worker has contracted COVID-19. No information in which capacity the employee works.
“New South Wales has recorded its first case of COVID-19 in the community in 25 days.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard confirmed on Sunrise that a woman who had worked at two Sydney hotels, including one which provides hotel quarantine for returned travellers, had returned a positive result overnight.”
Nominees have been announced in the 2020 ATP Awards for all player-voted categories.
Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award:
Rafa Nadal
Diego Schwartzman
Dominic Thiem
John Millman
Most Improved Award:
Diego Schwartzman
Andre Rublev
Jannik Sinner
Ugo Humbert
Fans’ Favorite and the Arthur Ash Humanitarian Awards will be announced later this month.
Coach of the Year Award voted by member coaches:
Juan Ignacio Chela [Diego Schwartzman]
Nicolas Massu [Dominic Thiem]
Gilles Cervara [Daniil Medvedev]
Ricardo Piatti [Janik Sinner]
Fernando Vicente [Andrey Rublev]
I hope Rafa win the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award!❤️
I am not familiar with Millman but I am not surprised about Rafa, Diego and Dominic’s nominations. Rafa got my vote.
Rafa is up for a sports award in Spain called Premio Deporte AS [or something like that] for his 13th Roland-Garros win, his fundraiser with Gaso for the Red Cross, and for his off-court persona. If he wins this one he will have beaten a slew of other famous Spanish sports stars. I hope he does.
My mistake, I voted for Rafa for fans’ favorite. I think players vote for the Sportsmanship Award.
Mimi, Rafa won last year against Roger, Diego, and Dominic.
He also won in 2018. If he wins this year, it will be his third consecutive win.🤗
Good luck to Rafa 🍀🤩😍
jas_uk, this is what I found on the US CDC website.
• Isolation separates sick people with a contagious disease from people who are not sick.
• Quarantine separates and restricts the movement of people who were exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick.
Regarding isolation, please bear in mind that Premier Andrews is treating everyone who enters Australia as a potential COVID case or carrier. There were even suggestions that isolation could be shortened to ten days but Andrews would not budge from his 14-day requirement. He has repeatedly mentioned the spread of the disease in the US, Europe and other countries that are seeing an exponential number of infection rates.
I hope this helps because it helped me to better understand the difference. I was not aware of the distinction between them.
Correction: “ There were even suggestions that isolation should be” is incorrect.
It should be quarantine and not isolation.
Just in from The Age:
L’Equipe reported that the government’s proposal to manage the Australian Open quarantine included:
Arrival in Australia between January 15-17.
Be subject to “bubble” quarantine, to last until January 31 for all, regardless of arrival date.
No one can spend more than five hours outside their hotel room and this time would be restricted to training on court, gym work or receiving treatment.
At Melbourne Park, a player can only be escorted by one person (but not necessarily the same person each day).
Training pairs to be formed, with two players (and their two accompanying staff) to train only with each other throughout the two weeks of quarantine. If any of those four then test positive for COVID-19, they will be quarantined in their rooms for 14 days following the positive test.
Coronavirus test would be scheduled for the first, third, seventh, 10th and 14th days of their stays.
I did read that [unnamed] players have yet to agree to the quarantine requirements. I guess they don’t want to play? They all talk about wanting to play but it seems as if they want to play by their rules. Pretty sad I think.
I read that the training pairs are for the first 7 days only and that in the second week of quarantine, groups of four can practise together. No matches are allowed though, so I guess that rules out the possibility of any other tournaments in Australia taking place.
Most of the rules sound perfectly reasonable, but I don’t understand “Players will be arriving via chartered flights between January 15-17 but quarantine won’t start until the last player arrives” – as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald. I presume that “quarantine” refers to the AO bubble, as surely anyone arriving from overseas needs to quarantine anyway.
I’m happy that a date has been set at last and we can start looking forward to some tennis – and especially seeing Rafa again.
Jas_uk, your info is most likely from an updated article after L’Equipe’s. Thank you.
No matches will be played during quarantine but that first week in February will see pre-Open tournaments. That’s why the date was pushed back from February 1, to February 8, for the start of the AO. One or more of the lesser tournaments may be canceled but no news about that yet.
“A February 1 start date would not have allowed any matches [health authorities rules out matches in the bubble] and also would have been unfair to players who may get infected during quarantine – as it would’ve ruled them out of the AO,” Tiley continued in the letter to players.”
Does the following clear up your uncertainty about “but I don’t understand “Players will be arriving via chartered flights between January 15-17 but quarantine won’t start until the last player arrives”
I don’t know for sure, but I imagine because initially the plan was to have players arrive between January 1-7, and time of arrival was shortened to 3 days there would be less time in isolation.
“Players will be able to train during 14-day quarantine, but only after testing negative to COVID-19 on the second day of isolation.
Testing will take place in each player’s hotel room on days one, three, seven, 10 and 14.”
It appears that “quarantine” and “isolation” are not being used interchangeably.
I won’t be surprised if there are an above average number of first and second round upsets with players going two months without competitive matches. Scheduling tournaments that first week of February will help but it won’t be enough. Here’s hoping Rafa is in top form when he arrives in Australia.