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Rafael Nadal says he was ‘a little bit lucky’ at times despite comfortable Australian Open win


Rafael Nadal says he was ‘a little bit lucky’ at times despite him comfortably overcoming Fabio Fognini at the Australian Open.

Nadal is now safely into the the quarter-finals after the 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win against the Italian, where he will face either Stefanos Tsitsipas of Matteo Berrettini.

However, despite his comfort, he said that crucial moments went his way and that was a key factor in the match.

“Every match, when you go on court, in a the round of 16 against a great player like Fabio, you’ve got to worry every moment,” Rafael Nadal said afterwards.

“But at the same time you can’t expect to go on court and not have problems during the match, facing these kinds of players.

“In the second set I don’t think I played a good game when he break me.

“I was lucky to have the break back immediately and then I saved 0-40 – that was the key.

“So building this couple of games, I was a little bit lucky to be able to have a score 5-4 for me on serving.

“I think in the beginning of second set from the beginning, I think I was better than him, then from 3-2 to 5, especially to 4-4, he was much better than me.

“I was able to hold the score and that was probably one of the biggest parts.”


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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.