‘It was a day to forget’: Rafael Nadal


‘It was a day to forget’: Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal is the greatest ever tennis player on clay in the history of Tennis. His records, and more specifically his manner of victories on clay is a testament to that. Coming into the Quarter-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters, Rafael Nadal had a win-loss record of 73-5 at the venue, and had won the tournament an unprecedented eleven times.

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In the tournament itself, Nadal had a bye in the first round, in the second he dominated Argentinian Federico Delbonis and won 6-1 6-2. In his third round match, Nadal blanked fourteenth seed Grigor Dimitrov 6-1 6-1. 

A rare Quarter-final defeat at Monte Carlo for Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal

If fans thought facing Rafael Nadal on clay was ‘mission-impossible’, Andrey Rublev surely must have left it as ‘mission-improbable’. But he was in for a surprise, as Nadal chose this day to play some of the worst tennis of his career. Nadal lost the first set 2-6, then made a comeback in the second to win it 6-4 before losing the third set 2-6 again.

Throughout the match, Nadal made innumerable unforced errors, and had a terrible outing with his serve. In all honesty, it looked like it was not Nadal but an imposter dressed up as him. Rublev though stuck to his task and got the job done. 

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After the match when Nadal was asked specifically on being frustrated, he said that he had reasons to complain with the way he was playing. But, he only shouted once or twice .He stressed that having a bad day against a top player is a killer cocktail

Nadal said,  “I had reasons to complain, but I didn’t. I only shouted after missing a backhand, I was tired of making unforced errors. It was a day to forget. Playing bad and doing it against a top player is a killer cocktail.”

Also Read: ‘Lorenzo Musetti is a good tennis player, but he’s got no manners’: Dan Evans