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Rafael Nadal is adamant that he’s not been inflicted with an Australian Open curse, despite falling short again at the season-opening grand slam.
The world No.2 was made to wait for a shot at his record-breaking 21st major after his quarter-final opponent Stefanos Tsitsipas became just the second man in a grand slam to claw back a two-set deficit to beat him.
Nadal has only one trophy in Melbourne, his worst return from all the majors.
There have been retirements, mid-match injuries, upsets and heartbreaking losses during his 16 trips to the Victorian capital but the 34-year-old says that’s just part of the game.
“It’s difficult to know exactly why these kind of things happen,” said Nadal, who had been bothered by a back injury in the lead-up to the tournament but said it was fine against Tsitsipas.
“The only thing that I can tell you is I always prepared the proper way to be ready for here.”
He did concede that being injured occasionally in December didn’t help but he couldn’t fathom why he hurt his back during his losing 2014 final against Stan Wawrinka when his preparation had been great.
“I don’t like to say ‘unlucky,’ but why? I don’t know,” he said.
“We can’t find a reason, no? Or today, this time, why I had for 20 days the back very stiff and I couldn’t practise the proper way – I really don’t know.”
He said while quarantining could be used as an excuse for weakening his body, he just accepted that it was part of the tournament.
“I never considered myself an unlucky person at all,” he said.
Meanwhile, Nadal has called on the tennis world to “think a little bit bigger” about the sport in the time of COVID.
While Novak Djokovic said many players would rather sit out the season than do another quarantine like in Australia, Nadal plumped for a multi-faceted solution.
He conceded it would be tough for players to compete in bubbles during every event but believed a lot of people’s livelihoods associated with the sport would suffer if the game stopped.
“We need to think a little bit bigger, no?,” he said.
“Probably we need to find a way to protect the players with the rankings, to not force them to keep playing.
“We need to find solutions and we need to adapt to this very tough time that we are facing. Not only us; the world.”
© AAP
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