“My family never allowed me to give up a match”- Rafael Nadal credits his upbringing for ‘big match temperament’
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Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal credited his family after he came back from the brink of defeat to pull off another astonishing comeback to win his Indian Wells Opener against Sebastian Korda. The three-time winner looked down and out in the decider but rallied past the American to keep his perfect start to the season intact. Korda was double break up and was serving for the match at 5-2, but Nadal conjured an incredible comeback to force a tiebreaker to eventually win the match 6-2 1-6 7-6 (3).
Nadal credited his former coach and uncle, Toni, along with his family for instilling a fighting spirit and his big match temperament in him and also helping him to keep his emotions in check when it mattered the most. He said winning matches was secondary to him while growing up as having proper values took the foremost priority.
“My uncle, my family, never allowed me to break a racquet, never allowed me to say bad words or threw or give up a match. Probably when I was a kid, they didn’t care much about winning or losing. Of course, all my family, my uncle, my coach, wanted me to win every single match. But probably that was not the most important thing. The most important thing was the education and the fact that I grow with the values, with the right values,” he said during his post-match press conference.
“[The] normal thing with this kind of match, in that position from 100 matches, probably you [are] going to lose 90. But if you give up, you’re going to lose 100. If you are there, you can win 10 percent. The reason why I have been fighting during all my tennis career or I have the right self-control or I have the right attitude or fighting spirit during my whole tennis career is simple, Because I grew with this kind of education,” Nadal added.
Rafael Nadal to take on Dan Evans in Round 3
After avoiding a second-set stumble, Nadal will be looking to put on a better display in his next round, as he squares off against 27th seed Dan Evans. In contrast to Nadal, Evans had a relatively easy clash in his opener, he breezed past Federico Coria 6-2, 6-0. But a tougher match-up awaits the Brit in his next round and he will need to fight hard to keep the scoreline respectable.
This will be their second meeting, their previous meeting ended with Nadal coming out on top in straight sets at the 2019 Canadian Open. Evans might have a chance this time around, given Nadal’s struggles in his previous round, but needs nothing short of a miracle to put an end to Nadal’s 16-match winning streak.
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T Rushitha
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