Djokovic: Nadal "Deserved To Win"

Novak Djokovic is disappointed to lose his title at the Mutua Madrid Open, but was full of praise for Rafael Nadal after their semi-final match on Saturday.

The Serbian went in with a seven-match win streak against the Spaniard, but struggled to find answers to Nadal’s powerful baseline hitting in their 50^th FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. Djokovic admitted afterwards that it would have been difficult to oust Nadal even if he were in peak form.

“Rafa was obviously a better player today. He deserved to win. He was controlling the game from beginning to the end,” said Djokovic. “His quality was very high and he managed to do whatever he wanted, especially in the first set. He did get the better of me in most of the stats today, most of the shots.”

However, the second seed didn’t mince words about his own performance. He hit 13 unforced errors in the opening set and often sprayed standard rally shots into the net or long. Although his effort never betrayed him, Djokovic said his game often did today.

“I tried my best. It wasn’t a very high quality of tennis from my side. I made a lot of unforced errors, especially in the first set, said Djokovic, “I felt like I was playing well throughout the week. I could have played better today. But, again, I just had an opponent that was too good. It’s just one of these days where your opponent is playing better than you, and you have to be able to say “congratulations” and move on.

But despite the loss, Djokovic said there are positives to take as he heads to Rome for the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, where he has won four times (2008, 2011, 2014-2015) and finished runner-up three times (2009, 2012, 2016). The World No. 2 reached his first ATP World Tour semi-final and faced a player inside the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings for the first time since his opening event of the season in Doha. He believes having those experiences again will serve him well as he looks ahead to another difficult draw.

“It was really good to play in the semi-finals of a big event and to play against one of my top rivals. I haven’t had that feeling in months, so it’s great to feel that,” said Djokovic. “It was a positive week and a positive experience. I take more positives than negatives going into next week in Rome. As I go along, I hope to continue getting better and getting stronger.”