Nadal: ‘I have to play with the highest intensity always’ Murray: ‘He helped in the last game’

‘The level I am showing is superior compared to last year’s’. This sentence is enough to make you understand the expectations of an humble Rafael Nadal, a player who staying with the feet on the ground built a career made of titles and titles. And he knew that today against Andy Murray it would have not been easy.

In the first set he was up 4-1 and then cameback Murray until 5-all: ‘I think the first set was very fair – said an honest Nadal – Apart from that [moment of the match, from 1-4 to 5-all], he was better than me, even though I managed to be 5-All. I think it was a different story in the second set. I had more opportunities than him. I had higher rhythm and tried to play aggressively to win the set. After that, [he] served very well. In the second set was serving really well. In general, he was a little bit better than me. I had opportunities to make it be enough, but, well, the reality is that I was capable of fighting back and to try to find a solution. After that, I just missed a little bit. Overall my feelings are good. Perhaps some moments I wasn’t playing so good and others I was playing really well. I was just missing a little bit more of intensity with my drive. I had to maybe play a little bit harder, which is what makes the difference. Today mentally I think I was okay.’ Rafa is optimistic and takes what’s positive from today’s match: ‘I think I had another positive week. I made it to the semifinals. I think I’m very consistent every week. This is good …

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