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INTERNAZIONALI BNL D'ITALIA

May 18, 2019

Rafael Nadal

Rome, Italy

R. NADAL/S. Tsitsipas

6-3, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Basically what is your analysis of your victory?
RAFAEL NADAL: I played little bit better than him. As I said yesterday, you asked me what I have to do. What I had to do is play well. Last week I didn't play very well in Madrid. Today I did better.

Then when you play better, we can start to analyze things, no? If you don't play well, is much more difficult to analyze things. That's the main thing.

So today when I was hitting the forehand, he was not able to hit his forehand. Last week when I was hitting the forehand, he still had the chance to go for the shots with his forehand. Something that would not happen today if I want to have success.

When I achieve that goal, I start to open the court with the backhand against his forehand, too. I was able to change down the line with the forehand. My return was a little bit more inside than last week.

In general terms, is important victory for me because I played a solid match against a good player and a player who is winning lot of matches in this surface. So win in straight sets against him is a very positive result.

More than this is a feeling that I am playing better every week, every day. That's important for me.

Q. Do you at all feel, your first final since the Australian Open, on clay, relieved by that? How are you feeling now that you're past a semifinal stage again?
RAFAEL NADAL: Happy to be in the final, of course. Yeah, was not a drama to lose in semifinals. That's part of the game, as I said every day. To be in the final is nothing unbelievable good. Is just a process that I have to go through.

The main thing is I am playing better. If I play better, I know I going to have chances to be in finals and to win semifinal matches. If you are not playing well, win against the best players of the world is much more difficult. So that's it.

The main thing is recover my level. More than be in the final for me, that's my feeling, the thing that I am happy with, that I am playing better.

I have margin to keep improving, in my opinion. But I am doing the right steps to be there.

Q. Can you talk about each of the two possible opponents for tomorrow, Djokovic and Schwartzman, who you had a tough match against in Paris last year.
RAFAEL NADAL: Yeah, of course Novak is the favorite this afternoon. We'll see. Diego is playing well, too. For me tomorrow is an opportunity to play against a good player, a great player. Is another test. I hope to be ready to compete well. Going to be a tough one.

But let's see. Let's see if I am able to play at the level that I need to play, better than today even. That's an opportunity tomorrow to make that happen.

Q. You, Novak, Roger are still playing very good. How big do you think is the gap between you and the NextGen?
RAFAEL NADAL: You can ask Nicola. He knows. He knows everything about the NextGen (smiling).

I don't know. I cannot answer questions about the NextGen every week and every day. The NextGen is a marketing product that the ATP created, and is great. What happens is they are young players, they are good.

At the end of the day, they are tennis players. We don't have to compare the players who are over 30 with the players that are under 21. There is no reason to compare these with the others. We can compare players, but not NextGen versus the other players.

They are great players. Tsitsipas is in the top eight in the world already. That's a great achievement. There is a couple of more that they are doing a lot of good things. They will have the chance to become great champions and win the most important events in the next couple of years.

The difference between us and them, we will see when we finish our careers and when they finish their careers.

Q. In the process to find out your form, which match was the most important on clay this year for you and why?
RAFAEL NADAL: Which match was the most important? Every practice and every match, no? Is not a match that is very important. Is about every day looking for the things that I need with hope and with passion and with the right attitude, no? That's daily work more than a match in particular.

What helps is win matches, of course. What also helps is have the feeling you play better. I say in Madrid I was playing better, then I played a bad match in the semifinals, true. But my feeling, especially after my lose against Thiem in semifinals of Barcelona, I think my personal feeling improved and my energy came back a little bit. After that I had the feeling that I was able to be back to play they level that I need to play.

Before that, the energy I think was not that high in Monte-Carlo and in Barcelona before. Have been through some tough moments after Indian Wells. Recovery of the knee again... Was not easy to come back and to prepare myself the right way. Mentally is tough to accept, too, that you cannot practice the way you need to practice. That's part of the process.

Then I had the chance to practice better, to do better things. Then the energy and motivation and passion back. In consequence, the level, too.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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