Ouch! That hurt!

Madrid

Usually, at this time of the year, Rafael Nadal is talking about how he’s getting into prime shape for the French Open, the greatest of the claycourt tournaments which he has won 11 times.

For the previous 14 seasons beginning 2005, Nadal had won multiple claycourt titles before the French Open. For instance, he’d won 3 claycourt titles before the French Open in 2018 and 2017, 2 in 2016 and 2015, 5 in 2013 and so on.

This year, he’s got nothing to show so far — and there’s only one claycourt tournament left before the French Open begins on May 26. Nadal has lost in three consecutive semifinals on tournaments on clay — at Madrid, Barcelona and Monte Carlo. Now he has only Rome before the French Open. Last night he lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas in three sets and was left humbled.

‘More normal’

He’s yet to win a tournament this year, his most barren start to a year since 2004. Nadal, who turns 33 on June 3, said that it’s “more normal”.

“I think that it’s more normal what is happening right now, than what happened in the past 14 years,” Nadal said. “I think I have tennis ahead of me. I have time ahead of me. I’ll be able to try to win this kind of tournament that I was not able to win this year. And what I have to do is to be fit and to play properly and a high tennis level.”

“If I manage to do that next year, I think I will still have a very good opportunity to fight for all of these titles and for the rest of the year, I still have two (claycourt) tournaments,” he said. “And we will see what happens there.”

Semis or better

Nadal has not been playing terribly — he’s reached at least the semifinals in five of six tournaments played this year, and has a 20-5 record on the season. He lost the Australian Open final, but more galling are the three semis defeats to three opponents on clay. Nadal said he had to accept it “naturally”.

“Tennis is about winning or losing. I have been able to win a lot for a lot of years on this surface. And this year, it seems that’s not the way and I am really close to it, but not managing to win,” Nadal said. “You just have to accept it and I have to accept it naturally. But to accept things does not mean to try to change things. But during all my life, I think I have taken the victories very naturally and with a lot of normality. With the losses I’ll do the same. It will be normal and I’m going to accept it naturally.”

Lost opportunity

Nadal is particularly upset by last night’s loss to Tsitsipas, in front of his home fans. “It’s a defeat. It’s a lost possibility to be able to play a final in an important tournament for me, a lovely tournament. I’ve lost that opportunity,” Nadal said. “It just means that I’m not going to be playing a match tomorrow, another day in front of all of these great people who support me.”

No fear

What’s bothering Nadal? He said he was not able to make Tsitsipas fear his forehand. “I was not able to create (for) him the feeling that he was going to suffer when I was hitting the forehand,” he said. “Being honest, my feeling is it was more about me tonight. He is young, he is improving and he has good talent,” he said. “But I don’t see myself losing that match if I play the same level that I played in Barcelona 2018 final…”