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ATP CUP

January 6, 2020

Rafael Nadal

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

R. NADAL/P. Cuevas

6-2, 6-1

Spain - 2

Uruguay - 0

Q. Well done. Do you think it was a step up from your first performance here in Perth?
RAFAEL NADAL: Yeah, I think so. It was a positive victory. I played a very solid match, my serve worked better than the first day. Returning I think very well from the baseline. I think I played some very good rallies, changing better direction with my forehand down the line. I think a very positive match.

Q. Have you been working on anything specific just in the last few weeks in the off-season?
RAFAEL NADAL: I didn't have much time to work on any specific things, no, I have been working well and I have had not many days off. I had some matches in Abu Dhabi of preparation too and I played well, so here I am. And every single match is important and every victory helps and every minute on court that allows you to increase the level and to improve things helps for increasing the level in general.

Q. Another challenge for you on Wednesday morning against Japan who won both their ties the winner will go to the finals. Spain might win the doubles tonight, but another challenge for yourself against Japan, Nishioka?
RAFAEL NADAL: Yeah, that's going to be a tough one. He had two great victories and with very comfortable results, so it's going to be a big challenge and I hope to be ready to play at the level that I need to be successful.

Q. Were you happy with your serve today? The first game was a little bit shaky the last match.
RAFAEL NADAL: Yeah, well honestly the conditions here are much slower than what we played at the end of the season, so it's normal that -- I saw on TV that people had more chances on the return than usual because the courts are slow, something that people thinks because I had a lot of success on clay that it's better for me but it's not true, I normally play much better on fast surfaces than very slow surfaces. And the serve the first day was not that bad. I lost the first game, but then I was serving comfortable until 6-3, 5-2, then I had a couple of mistakes. But he played well, of course my serve didn't work well at that two games, but with not a very negative feeling in terms of serve. No, today I improved, I think, I don't know how many aces, but I serve quite a good free points, I had some good free points with my serve and the second serve worked well too. So I think I suffered just in a couple of games during the whole match, so that's important.

Q. Novak Djokovic has talked about the bush fires that might, the smoke from the bush fires that might affect the start of the Australian Open possibly. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think any fears that it might get postponed or has it been a talking point amongst the players?
RAFAEL NADAL: I don't have the full information to have a clear opinion on this. I don't know how contaminated is the air, how the things are going to improve or not during the next couple of weeks, so it's difficult to have a real opinion on this thing. The only thing that I can say is it's a super sad situation and from my side we will do things to try to raise money for this terrible thing that this is happening since awhile here in Australia now, so I am here to help in the way, in any way that is possible and I'm sure we will be able to, together with the rest of the players, to help to raise important money for this disaster.

Q. No doubles tonight. What chance that we see you playing doubles in Sydney or will you wait on Francisco, what's best for the team?
RAFAEL NADAL: No, we know that I am a part of the doubles team if we need it. Just we thought that for us the goal is try to go as far as possible and wanted to be ready when we need to be ready and it's important to save some energy at some point and today we have another two great players on court, Feli and Pablo, that's why we have a strong team, we have different options. But, yeah, I am sure that I will be on the doubles, on the court playing doubles very soon.

Q. We heard a statistic tonight, you're the first player to be No. 1 across three decades, you must be very proud about that.
RAFAEL NADAL: Well, yeah, to have this, some of this records is special and happy for that, that means that I had a very long career. And being the one to make that happen is always special, to be the number one in anything, if it's positive. Of course if it's negative better not. It's a beautiful thing, but just one more thing that, it's not a big thing, but, yeah, it's a nice statistic.

Q. How impressed with you with Roberto tonight and just the strong start that the team has had in Perth, how much confidence does it give you for the rest of the competition?
RAFAEL NADAL: We go day by day. Japan is going to be another tough challenge, important to win matches, it's true that Roberto played against players that were not top-100, but he was able to win in very comfortable scores. So that means that he's solid, he's confident and sometimes these kind of matches are not easy to play and for me personally I think I played against two good players and I was able to win in straight sets. That helps. That means that I am doing things more or less well and after tomorrow another opportunity.

Q. Could you give us your thoughts about your student Casper Ruud and his performances here. He's beaten two top players and where do you see him going this year?
RAFAEL NADAL: Good. I saw him playing good in the off-season, practicing every single day in Mallorca and he was practicing strong and very well and, yeah, it's very important to have a beginning of the season with these two great results winning against John and against Fabio. He's amazing and I think that in the past he had some trouble because he used to prefer to play on clay much more than hard, but that's something that for me personally makes me happy, because he's a great guy, he's a hard worker and he has a great family around him, great human people around him, so, yeah, super happy for all of them and especially forecast terrible. So that's encouraging for what's coming later.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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