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ATP CUPJanuary 4, 2020Captain Francisco RoigRafael NadalFeliciano LopezPablo Carreno BustaPerth, Western Australia, Australia THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Rafa, good game for yourself. How are you feeling afterwards? RAFAEL NADAL: Good. Have been positive victory, of course, for me and for the team. 3-Love, good to start the competition. Me personally, I had the match under control. 5-2 against a good player like Nikoloz. Have been a positive start. Obviously he played with some good games. I had couple mistakes. Then the match became more difficult. That is it. Q. How long does it take to get rid of some of the rust from the off-season? All the players have a break. How long does it take for you to try to get back into rhythm? RAFAEL NADAL: For me, have not been not much off season, almost follow by season. That's my reality. So, no, I am fine. Of course, matches like today helps to be more rhythm. Victories helps, too. That's an important start. Q. Is it good for you to get a good challenge early? You were 5-2 up in the second set, and he came back. RAFAEL NADAL: I don't know. The good thing is play well and win matches. That helps you with the confidence. That's it. Of course, be on court, win a match against a good player like him helps for the confidence, helps for the rhythm. I did things well, things that I can improve. In general terms, I have to be satisfied. Q. Rafa, when you watched Roberto play, you watched a teammate play, but then you go inside back to the locker room, how do you manage your emotions and not expend too much energy on supporting Roberto when you have to focus on your own match? RAFAEL NADAL: Well, I am old in this situations. A lot of experience. So nothing is new for no one of us here. We went through a lot of important moments in Davis Cup, so we know how to manage the situation. If things not going well, is not because we lose energy in moments we should not. Q. Francis, an assessment of the tie overall from your point of view as captain? CAPTAIN ROIG: Today's match? Q. Yes. CAPTAIN ROIG: Well, for us is amazing to start 3-0. Roberto played great match. I think even if it looks easy match, the result was much difficult than what it was, was nice points. He make very few mistakes. Then Rafa had the chance against a very tough opponent like Basilashvili that always kills the ball. I think after five, six games, he could control the game. Then, as he said before, he had the match on his hand. Pity that volley, could be 6-3, 6-2. At the end, well, it was better to win easy. But also when you have these situations, give you little bit more experience, experience on these days. Still working pretty good. Then the doubles, I think even they start with break down, they were playing better and better. For us also was very good. At the end of the day, 3-0, we are happy. Tomorrow we be ready for the next one. Q. Francis, Cuevas from Uruguay may not play in the next tie because of his hamstring. CAPTAIN ROIG: Who? Q. Cuevas. Do you consider maybe bringing somebody else in for a singles? CAPTAIN ROIG: No. We have to see. We just finished today. I don't think this can change our plans. We have our plans and we have to decide. Q. Rafa and Feliciano, what is about representing your country that brings out the very best in you? RAFAEL NADAL: Well, we don't need to share things, no? Davis Cup is one thing. Here we are playing another thing, no? In Davis Cup we have the full federation involved. Here not. Is true that we are playing for our country, but we are here by ourselves. We don't have a federation behind us. Is a little bit different situation. Today we start our numbers in this new competition. We don't have to share numbers with Davis Cup and this ATP Cup, no? We are happy, always proud to represent our country. We always happy to share moments between us that we are all very good friends since long time ago. We have fun on the weeks that we are able to be together, play like a team and like a country. Here is another opportunity to make it in a new and exciting competition. Let's see if we are able to keep managing well the situation and to keep playing at our highest level to be successful. FELICIANO LOPEZ: I agree with Rafa. I think this is a very different competition than Davis Cup. Having said that, I think it's always a great opportunity to be representing your country, to share this week with the teammates, with the captain. It's a very unique competition. We play for ourselves during the year. Tennis is an individual sport. As soon as you have the opportunity to play for somebody else, to share the emotions with somebody else in the team, is very exciting. I love it. Personally I have great memories playing for my country. As soon as I'm ready to, I'm going to try to represent my country always in the best way. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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