Rafael Nadal: ‘Against Murray I hope that I don’t repeat what happened in 2015’

Rafael Nadal makes his life complicated against Sousa, beaten in three sets without playing his best tennis. In the third set on 1-all 15-30, Nadal threw a ball to the line. The Spaniard does not know if that was the turning point. He gives a very interesting reply: ‘And if the last ball had gone in it would be 4-2, serving for 5-2. In tennis you never know. And if, and if it happened. It’s better not to think about those things. And if Thiem had missed in the semifinals I would have made it to the finals, and perhaps in Buenos Aires too. And if I hadn’t lost in the past against Djokovic in Australia, well perhaps I would have another Grand Slam to my name. You know, in sport, in tennis there can be a lot of perhaps and if this happens or that happens, but of course I’m happy because today I was able to win and do well.’

Tomorrow it might rain, and so they could play with the roof closed. Asked if this could be a problem, Nadal said: ‘No, not really. The worst thing of today was not playing indoors, not closing the roof. The problem was that it was raining and the ball got wet. The clay was also wet and the balls, as I said, they were very heavy because they were wet. In the third set we changed balls, and well, the feelings changed. In the second set, apart from stopping for 20 minutes – that didn’t help either – the ball was heavy. It was raining. I wasn’t able to win the two break points that I had, and that’s all.’  Last year Sousa trained with Rafa in Mallorca, and last week Raonic and Murray went to Mallorca to train with him. Asked what is special there that attracts a lot of players to train with him, Nadal said: ‘Well, I think also the fact of training together, I think it’s always something positive and …

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