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Rafael Nadal Monte Carlo Masters 2021
ATP Tennis Players, Rafa Nadal, Tennis News

Rafael Nadal: ‘I was worried – I have competed very little in the last year’


Rafael Nadal was happy to concede that he was ‘worried’ by his form before completing a solid fightback against Ilya Ivashka in Barcelona.

Nadal lost to Andrey Rublev in the Monte-Carlo Masters quarter-finals last week, making an uncharacteristically error-strewn performance.

He was a big favourite to brush aside Belarusian Ivashkov in his Barcelona opener, but he was made to work immensely hard before closing out a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 win.

“Today I don’t think he played at the level of his ranking,” Rafael Nadal said of his opponent.

“He played well and I didn’t do it and the game was tough and I accepted the challenge of fighting and running to win.

“I think games like today will help me get back to my best level. I’m a human and when I lost the first set I was worried.

“When you come from losing a game there are always a few days of doubts and I have to recover.

“I have trained better than I have played, but it is also true that I have gone from less to more in the game.

“I have competed very little in the last year and it was important to save this match in any way.”


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Michael Graham, Tennishead.net Editor, has been a professional sports journalist for his whole career and is especially passionate about tennis. He's been the Editor of Tennishead.net for over 5 years and loves watching live tennis by visiting as many tournaments as possible. Michael specialises in writing in-depth features about the ATP & WTA tours.