Rafael Nadal’s good run preparing for the French Open has suddenly hit a speed bump.
Nadal’s quarter final loss to Alexander Zverev at the Madrid Open on Friday came as an unexpected setback in a week in which the king of clay said he was feeling good about his game. “Negative feelings because this was an important week for me,” Nadal said.
“I had been progressing, but sometimes when you are going up the stairs, you may take a step backward, and that’s what happened.”
Nadal lost to the No. 6-ranked Zverev 4-6, 4-6 after comfortable wins against up-and-comers Carlos Alcaraz and Alexei Popyrin. “The entire week I did things well, both in training and in the matches,” Nadal said.
“…but (against Zverev) when it counted, in the decisive moments, I did everything wrong.”
Nadal has been trying to regain his best form after not playing much because of the coronavirus pandemic. He got off to a slow start on clay by his standards, being eliminated by Andrey Rublev in the quarter finals in Monte Carlo then won the Barcelona Open after dropping multiple sets through that week.
He said he was frustrated on Friday because he felt like he played better than Zverev at times but could not take advantage of his chances. He felt like he let the quarter final slip away by making “too many unjustified mistakes.”
“It was a different match than the one against (Andrey) Rublev (in Monte Carlo), when the conditions favoured me. Here there was a sensation that I was not in control of things, so when you lose it feels like things are worse than they really are.”
On Saturday, Zverev followed his triumph over Rafael Nadal with a win over Dominic Thiem to reach another Madrid Open final. The No. 6-ranked Zverev defeated No. 4 Thiem 6-3, 6-4.
India’s Rohan Bopanna and Denis Shapovalov of Canada fought hard before losing 6-4, 3-6, 10-5 to German duo of Alexander Zverev and Tim Puetz in the men’s doubles quarter finals.