“It was hard for him to digest” – Coach Carlos Moya on Rafael Nadal finding it difficult to accept his loss against Daniil Medvedev


“It was hard for him to digest” – Coach Carlos Moya on Rafael Nadal finding it difficult to accept his loss against Daniil Medvedev
Rafael Nadal

One of the greatest of all time, Rafael Nadal, rewrote history in 2020 when he won his record equaling 20th Grand Slam title. The Spaniard did so when he downed the World No.1, Novak Djokovic, in three-sets at the Roland Garros final. Furthermore, Rafa went on to record his 1000th victory at Paris Masters.

Even so, the Nitto ATP Finals remains one of the handful of tournaments wherein Nadal is yet to win. The World No.2 was heavily touted as one of the heavy favourites to do so this year. However, chords across the world were struck when Daniil Medvedev achieved his maiden victory over the Spaniard. In doing so at the semi-finals, the former ousted the latter from the event. 

Rafa’s long-time coach, Carlos Moya, has recently reflected on how this loss affected the champ. 

FS Video

“It was difficult to accept” – Moya

Rafael Nadal, Daniil Medvedev

In an interview, Moya compared the losses that Rafa bore at the Australian Open and the year-end championships in 2020. The World No.2 was knocked out of the maiden Major of the year by Dominic Thiem

Carlos said, “Losing at the Australian Open against Dominic Thiem in the quarterfinals did not affect him much. On the other hand, this was not really the case following his defeat in the semifinals to Daniil Medvedev, it was difficult to accept.”

He added that Nadal was in fact quite confident heading into the Nitto ATP Finals. Further, losing from a set and a break was hard to swallow for one of history’s greatest. 

Rafa felt good during this Masters and he finally never felt so close to winning. It was hard for him to digest this loss,” Moya concluded.

Also Read: “At 19, you can only improve” – Jannik Sinner aiming to dethrone Djokovic, Nadal and Federer