“I played much more than what I expected” Rafael Nadal breaks silence over withdrawal from the Miami Open
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Rafael Nadal
World No. 4 Rafael Nadal has made his best start to the season and the Spaniard despite having a few flaws in his games that leave him in positions of an almost defeat, his strength and ability to come back from any situation sees him win the match as he is now 17-0 for the season with all results on hard courts where he has often been criticised for not being much dominant.
With 3 titles from 3 tournament appearances so far, Nadal is into the 4th round of the 2022 Indian Wells Masters where he is looking for his fourth Indian Wells title and also the 4th of his season. While he continues to amaze the fans with his game, he has however chosen to snatch the joy from the fans in Miami as the 21-time Grand Slam champion has opted to not play the 2022 Miami Masters.
While Nadal had hinted that he will be skipping a few tournaments, his decision to play in Acapulco and Indian Wells gave hope that the Spaniard might actually continue to stay on the Tour without a break. He has however cleared the air around his decision to skip Miami after reports revolving around an injury in Indian Wells were linked to his withdrawal from Miami.
“I didn’t play Miami for the last couple of years. I am almost 36. I played much more than what I expected at the beginning of the season. For my body, it is not good to have quick transitions from different surfaces. Clay to hard — well, hard to clay. If I play Miami, I will not have time to rest and not time to make a swift transition to the clay.
“I need to push since the beginning very hard, so that’s dangerous for my foot, for my knees. I need to make those transitions step by step. I cannot make drastic changes like I did in the past, so that’s why I decided to stop after here and to have, like, three weeks before the clay-court season start for me,” said Nadal after his 3rd round win over Daniel Evans where he won the match in straight-sets.
Rafael Nadal one win away from breaking Roger Federer’s record
With the win over Evans, Nadal became the first man to win 400 matches in the ATP Masters tournaments. It also extended his record to 17-0, tying Roger Federer and Pete Sampras for the best start to a season since 1990. With a 4th round clash with Reilly Opelka, an 18th consecutive win will take Nadal ahead of Federer and Sampras and the Spaniard will stand alone on the 3rd spot for the best season start.
Novak Djokovic currently occupies the top two spots with a 26 win streak in 2020 and a 41-match winning streak in 2011 being the records that see the Serbian on top of the list. If Nadal is to win the title in Indian Wells, he will become just the second man to win more than 20 matches to start a season behind Djokovic.
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)