Nadal: "Playing Like This, Good Things Can Happen"

It was a rivalry renewed for the 35th time and it more than lived up to the hype and expectations. Roger Federer edged Rafael Nadal in a rollercoaster five-set thriller for the Australian Open crown on Sunday, prevailing 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 in three hours and 37 minutes.

The victory was sweet for Federer, claiming another slice of history with an unprecedented 18th major title. For Nadal, his own opportunity to surge into the record books was denied.

The Spaniard was bidding to become the first player in the Open Era to capture all four Grand Slam titles on multiple occasions. But, speaking to the assembled media following the match, Nadal refused to view the defeat in a negative light. After concluding his 2016 ATP World Tour campaign early due to a wrist injury, he believes that the final run in Melbourne will propel him to even greater things in 2017.

“I feel happy,” Nadal said. “I played a great quality of tennis during the whole month [in Brisbane and Melbourne]. That’s great news for me. The only goal for me is keep going. I believe that if I have my body in the right conditions, I can have a great year because I feel that I am playing well.

“I cannot predict what’s going on in the future. That’s always the same thing. I just think that I am playing well. I worked hard to be where I am. I believe that playing like this, good things can happen. It can happen here on this surface. If I am able to play like this, to have matches like I did the other day, and recover well as I recovered, then the opponents don’t get that many free points and I am playing solid from the baseline. If I made that happen, I think I can keep having success on hard courts, but on clay can be special.”

Nadal has many positives to take from a strong start to the season. The Spaniard entered Melbourne Park after a quarter-final finish at the Brisbane International presented by Suncorp and proceeded to kick his game into another gear.

A pair of straight-set victories over former Top 20 players Florian Mayer and Marcos Baghdatis was followed by a gritty, five-set triumph over #NextGenATP star and 24th seed Alexander Zverev. Nadal rallied from a two-sets-to-one deficit to reach the Round of 16 and he was not done there. The Mallorca native recorded consecutive Top 10 wins on a hard court for the first time since the 2015 ATP Finals, downing Gael Monfils and Milos Raonic, before edging a resurgent Grigor Dimitrov in a pulsating semi-final encounter.

Nadal admits that reaching his first final in nearly 10 months has provided much-needed confidence in his game. Belief in his abilities at this stage of his career is paramount.

“Being honest, last year I felt great coming here, but not as well as this year,” Nadal added. “I felt great. But I lost in the first round. This year I won an important match against Zverev in the third round. That’s important. I won great matches against great players.

“I competed well against everybody. That’s the most important thing for me. That makes me feel happy. Of course, winning an event like this is so important. For me, if I won that one, it would have been amazing. But the real thing is what makes me more happy, more than the titles, is going on the court and feeling that I can enjoy the sport.

“Today I am enjoying the sport. Last year I only had the chance to enjoy the sport between Indian Wells and Madrid, because in Madrid I got injured in the quarter-finals. That’s the real feeling.

“At this moment in my career, more than titles, for sure if I am playing well, I believe that I am going to win titles. More than all these kinds of things is being healthy enough to work the way I need to work, to fight for the things I want to fight for. I’m going to keep trying to do that and to work the same way.”

Nadal is scheduled to resume his 2017 ATP World Tour campaign next month at the 500 events in Rotterdam and Acapulco. He is making his first appearance at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament since 2009, where he continues his quest for his first hard-court crown since Doha 2014, and will be seeking a third title at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel, taking part in the Latin American Golden Swing for the fifth straight year. 

“I said before the tournament started that I felt that I was practising great. Then you need to do it in the matches and I did. I have great satisfaction. I cannot say that I am sad. I wanted to win, yes, but I am not very sad. I did all the things that I could. I worked a lot during all these months. I kept working and I competed well.

“I enjoyed the competition. I won against the best players in the world, and I competed well against everybody. That’s the most important thing for me and that gives me confidence to keep playing and that’s what I’m going to try.”