Nadal: 'We Played A Beautiful Match.'

Losing a big match is always a tough pill to swallow, but there was no bitterness in Rafael Nadal’s words after the Spaniard fell to Novak Djokovic 7-5, 7-6(4) in the quarter-finals of the Internazionale BNL d’Italia on Friday.  

“I am so happy to be in a close match, and I have to congratulate him. He played great,” Nadal said. “We played a beautiful match. I was a bit unlucky today. I had so many chances in the first set.

“But when somebody is winning as much as him for the past years, it’s so important to [be opportunistic]. He hit great shots in important moments. That’s it.”

Despite the loss, Nadal has re-established himself as one of the best clay-courters in the world. He is 15-2 on the surface in 2016 and took home the title at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters and at the Barcelona Open BancSabadell.

“I’ve been playing well during the whole clay court season,” Nadal said. “It’s true that in Madrid I didn’t play well in the last two matches [against Joao Sousa and Andy Murray], but in general I’m playing well in most of the matches most of the time. Today I was mentally fighting for every point, hitting good shots. I was very, very, very close this afternoon, and that’s positive.

“I’m not disappointed. I was competing at the highest level against the best player. Playing a match like this gives me confidence,” Nadal, who is now winless against Djokovic in their past seven FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings, added. “I’m happy to be part of this rivalry. We’ll talk about this when we finish our career, hopefully a long time from now.

“I feel lucky and unlucky at the same time, to be playing in the same era as [Novak].”