Rafael Nadal rejoices for Carreno's win over Novak Djokovic

Twenty-time Grand Slam tournament champion Rafael Nadal has decided not to participate in the Tokyo Olympic Games this year and is one of the big absentees of the event. Despite this, Rafa, while he is engaged in the preparation phase for the American hard-court season and in particular with the Us Open goal in his sights, continues to see everything that happens in Tokyo and observes in particular him or his countrymen and countrywomen.

Just in the day, the Spanish champion posted Instagram Stories with messages of good wishes for his compatriots who managed to win medals. Rafa's message for his countryman Pablo Carreno Busta, winner of the bronze medal in today's match that saw him the absolute protagonist and winner against the number one in the world and great rival of Rafa, Novak Djokovic, did not go unnoticed.

Totally wrong day for Nole who, due to a physical problem, also withdrew from the mixed doubles where he had to face the final for the bronze medal.

Rafa's message for Pablo Carreno Busta

After losing to Alexander Zverev in the semifinals and thus definitively losing the chance to win the gold medal, Novak Djokovic lost his second consecutive match, a rather unusual situation for a champion like him.

After an abrupt start that cost him the first set Nole reacted and managed to win the second set in the tiebreak. The reaction did not help, however, as Carreno appeared to be anything but unloaded, he started with a thousand, taking immediately to 3-0 in the third set and kept the advantage until the end, thus closing at 6-3.

Through his Instagram profile, Rafa cheered for all his compatriots and posted a message with the image of his compatriot and friend Pablo leaving the message: "Great Pablo, what happiness! Congratulations!" So while on the Serbian side there is so much bitterness about how the Olympics went, Rafa and the whole Spanish club for the tennis Olympics.

Rafa this season won Barcelona and Rome. At the Barcelona tournament he wins his first trophy of the season, beating in sequence Il'ja Ivaška, Kei Nishikori, Cameron Norrie, Pablo Carreño Busta and in the final Stefanos Tsitsipas, winning his 12th title in the Catalan tournament , 61st on clay and 87th overall. At the Masters 1000 in Madrid he stops in the quarter-finals after suffering his first defeat on clay against Alexander Zverev, number 6 in the world.

In his first round at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia he eliminates Jannik Sinner in two sets. In the round of 16, Denis Shapovalov wins at the tiebreaker of the third set after saving two match points, while in the quarterfinals he avenges the defeat he suffered in Madrid, eliminating Alexander Zverev in two sets. In the semifinal he overtakes Reilly Opelka in two sets and reaches his twelfth final at the Foro Italico, where he obtains, in three sets, the 28th victory out of 57 direct clashes against Novak Dokovic, lifting for the 10th time the trophy at the Internazionali d'Italia, his 88th career title, 62nd on clay courts.

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