“It’s time to push, to get rid of the fear of breaking. I have to force and if I break, then I break“. Rafa Nadal faces the Masters 1000 in Rome aware that it is the last test before the great challenge of this phase of the season: Roland Garros.
The Balearic player suffered greatly to beat the Belgian Zizou Bergs in his debutwhom he defeated 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 after an intense battle of almost three hours in which he was forced to get closer to his best level to come back.
“I see it as something very positive. Even if I didn’t play well, which for me was a bit surprising, on the other hand it’s not surprising because I haven’t played for almost two years. I have to accept that my level is a little more irregular. It’s not like it used to be before, it was all very stable.” he said at a press conference.
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It will have to be more regular this Saturday in what will be his first big test of the season. He measures himself against a top 10 player like Hubert Hurkacz. The Pole, number 9 in the world and seventh seedwill debut in the Italian tournament after a somewhat irregular start to the clay court season.
After winning the first clay title of his career in Estoril, Hurkacz was unable to advance past the round of 16 at the Masters 1000 in Monte Carlo and Madrid, where he was beaten in two sets by players of the same level and ranking, Casper Ruud (6-4, 6-2) and Taylor Fritz (7-6, 6-4).
Surprisingly, it will be the first confrontation between both. Despite having been in the elite for many years, Nadal and Hurkacz have never seen each other in an official match, which adds another point of uncertainty to a match that should serve to gauge the real level of the former world number 1 in his attempt to return to the tennis elite again.
2024-05-11 05:25:00
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