Rafael Nadal: 'The final scoreline was impossible'

Toni Nadal was one of the personalities, perhaps the most important, in the career of his nephew Rafael Nadal and introduced the Majorcan champion to this sport when he was only 3 or 4 years old, managing to teach him to play and always get the most out of himself. . After each great result Toni showed Rafa the list of previous champions of that tournament, explaining that many were no longer in the game or in any case had not made it because they had not worked hard enough. At the age of 15 Rafa Nadal embarked on a career in professionalism and in 2003 he entered the Top 200. In 2004, at a very young age, he beat world number 1 Roger Federer in the Miami ATP tournament and then won his first in August. title to Sopot. Preparing his assault on the throne, Rafa became world number two, winning his first Grand Slam and then four Masters 1000s in 2005, making him Roger Federer's greatest rival. We all know the rest, it is now part of tennis history and this year Rafa has reached, by winning the thirteenth Roland Garros in his career, the eternal rival with 20 Grand Slam titles. Rafael Nadal opened up on several topics during a recent interview, including crowd behavior at Paris. The Spaniard explained that he doesn't mind the occasional partisan crowd at Roland Garros.

Nadal on his crushing victory at the 2020 French Open

Rafael Nadal then went on to talk about his crushing victory over Novak Djokovic in the final of the 2020 French Open. "The final (scoreline) was impossible," Rafael Nadal said. "You cannot imagine that such an important game and with a rival like this (Novak Djokovic) could turn out that way. Although the result was bulky (lopsided) in the first two sets, there were key moments and those moments fell on my side and made a decisive difference." According to Rafael Nadal, the lower temperatures in Paris coupled with the new balls affected him physically and negated his natural style of play. "The conditions were very tough in Paris," the Spaniard went on. "Playing cold is difficult for my body and my style. My punches are less effective. Roland Garros is a very big court and I control the angles very well, but for that you need the ball to respond to the racket. This year they changed the ball and that along with the cold, effected my game."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2WAXDYn