“I think Rafa had a chance to reach the final and to win the tournament,” Former World number one, believes Rafael Nadal squandered a chance to win the Nitto ATP Finals
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Carlos Moya, coach of Rafael Nadal since 2016 believed that the Spaniard had a good year on tour but squandered an opportunity to win his maiden ATP Finals title. Moya also believed that 2020 was a strange year, with the coronavirus suspending the 2020 season from March-June. He also believed that inspite of the year 2020 was, Rafael Nadal did quite well.
Rafael Nadal won the Mexico Open title earlier in February and won his 13th French Open title, demolishing Djokovic in the final. With this victory, the Spaniard drew level with his rival tuned close friend, Roger Federer on most number of majors won. However, Carlos Moya believed the year would have been better if Nadal ended with a title in London.
“Very rare season and very strange year for everyone,” Moya said. “Within what has been possible to play, the balance is clearly positive because winning a Grand Slam always turns the year into a great year. That is undoubted. The pity was the end with the London Masters Cup where I think Rafa had a chance to reach the final and also to win the tournament,” Moya added.
Most of the key points fell in the opponent’s side in London: Carlos Moya
Carlos Moya believed that Rafael Nadal’s loss to Daniil Medvedev in the semifinals and to Dominic Thiem in the round robin stage hinged on just a couple of few important points and games. The Spaniard lost two tiebreakers to Thiem in his round robin stage match and was serving for the set against Medvedev in the semifinals, but he managed to bow out in 3 sets.
“In this type of game against these rivals (Dominic Thiem and Daniil Medvedev), who are the best in the world, and on these surfaces where everything goes so fast, games end up being decided on two or three key points. If you end up changing the winner of those points, the game completely changes both for and against,” the former French Open champion said.
“We are used to Rafael Nadal solving this type of situation in his favor, but it must be emphasized that rivals also play at a tremendous level,” Moya said. “It is a shame that most of those key points that we are talking about fell on the opponent’s side in this tournament,” he added. Moya also spoke about the uncertainty regarding the 2021 schedule and believed that players needed to be flexible to play as many tournaments as possible.
“Right now what we know is that, as of now, you cannot go to Australia until January 8 and for that and other reasons there are many things in the air,” Moya said. “We still do not even know what the evolution of the virus will be and that is why we must be vigilant and open to any type of event,” Moya concluded.
Also Read: Countdown to 2021 Season: 5 players to look forward to on the ATP Tour in the coming year
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Nirmit Mehta
(2425 Articles Published)