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ROLAND GARROSJune 4, 2014Rafael NadalPARIS, FRANCE R. NADAL/D. Ferrer THE MODERATOR: Questions in English, please. Q. The match changed totally after the first two sets. How did you see it, and what did you see make it change so fast? RAFAEL NADAL: Well, I think at the beginning David was playing with a higher intensity than me. Is true that I started first two points playing well, but then I make a lot of mistakes with my backhand. Amazing with how much mistakes I had with my backhand today. Difficult to understand, because last two days I was practicing the best that I practiced since a long time ago in terms of feeling with my forehand, with my backhand. I went on court relaxed. Not relaxed thinking that I'm going to win, but relaxed thinking I'm going to play well. I really felt the ball better than probably during the whole year. So I don't know. Windy day, too. I get a little bit block mentally with my backhand, and was a little bit difficult for me to change the dynamic of the match. I needed to hit more forehands to change that dynamic, and I was not able to do it in the first set. I was hitting the backhand that bad that I couldn't put David away from a good position and then let him play in not a good position I had the chance to hit with my forehand, no? Then when I was hitting my forehand I tried to go too much for the points in the first set, because I know if I hit, he has that option to play against my backhand and then he will have that advantage again. So it was tough the first set mentally. I decide to go more inside to return in the second set, and I decided to play much more times with my forehand. I did, I think: When I did, I think the dynamic of the match changed. Even if the match was close in the second, even if he had some break points to break back to me, the dynamic was better for me I thought in that moment of the match. I was able to make that change. That's important and very positive. And then after the second set, I don't know, I think David play with more mistakes than usual, and I continue playing with my forehand. Is true after that second set I relaxed and I was hitting the backhand ‑ probably not perfect, not as I would like to do, because as I told you before my feeling before the match was unbelievable with the shots ‑ but I was playing with no mistakes. So that was very important. Q. At some point you won like 10 games in a row. Was the fact that it was getting darker maybe helping you think that you want to be more aggressive and play faster and try to finish it tonight? RAFAEL NADAL: Would be real arrogance if I said yes to that. When you play a match of quarterfinals of Roland Garros against a big player like David Ferrer, you think about point by point and try to be an advantage. But not winning faster because can finish the day. No, no, no, you can think that when you are 4‑1 in the fourth. No, not when you are 2‑0 in the third, because you know how tough is David. You have to take your own time. Q. David was saying earlier that he was disappointed by his effort I guess in the third and fourth sets and felt like he faded. Did you notice the same thing from across the net, that it looked like he was not able to keep up the effort as well as he usually is? RAFAEL NADAL: Sure, no? I will not say anything against. That's what his feeling is. His feeling is the real one. I felt that he played with more mistakes in the third than the fourth, more mistakes than usual. I cannot win against David 6‑0, 6‑1 if he's playing well. So that's real. Against a No. 5, 6 of the world, you cannot win 6‑0, 6‑1. It's not real. So something happened there that he played with more mistakes. But during this period of time, even with his mistakes, I was doing the things better. When I was able to hit with my forehand, I felt that I was in control. Q. You have very good memories of Roland Garros here. You won eight times. But you won your Olympic gold medal in Beijing. The organizer just announced, you are going to go back to Beijing for China Open. Can you talk about your impression of the city, the tournament? RAFAEL NADAL: What happened? Q. China Open. Can you just talk a little bit about your impression about the city. RAFAEL NADAL: If I gonna go this year to China Open? Q. Organizers announced this year you're going to go back. RAFAEL NADAL: I didn't know if it's official yet. Q. You didn't know that? Oh, come on. It was a big announcement. RAFAEL NADAL: We can talk about then (Laughter). Yes, is sure Beijing ‑I talk about that hundreds of times‑ was one of the best experiences that I had in my career, the Olympic Games of Beijing 2008. Was amazing all the things that I had the chance to enjoy there. Knowing how much I loved that Olympic Games, that's why I was totally destroyed when I couldn't play in London 2012. Olympics are different things, different event. I really enjoyed a lot there. Beijing is a great city that I had the chance to know a little bit. I went to Forbidden City, went to Summer Palace last year. Disappointing that I couldn't go yet to the Great Wall. A lot of traffic. I wake up at 7:00 in the morning to go, and then I couldn't go. It was so traffic. So disappointed for that, but I gonna try to go this year. Q. I wonder if you were back in the locker room in time to see the final set of the Murray/Monfils match. But if you weren't, what you thought of the result and a few comments about what you think of the semifinal. RAFAEL NADAL: Did you see the fifth? Q. Yeah, it was really quick. RAFAEL NADAL: I think it was too quick to see. For me it was impossible. I left my court with 1‑0, and when I arrived to the locker room was 4‑0. You can imagine that I went to the shower and I didn't see (Laughter.) I didn't see nothing about that. But always play against Andy is a big challenge. Always is a pleasure at the same time. I really like him as a person. I think he's a great guy. Always stay the same. He's a great competitor. Always he's great to have him back on his top level playing again semifinal of Grand Slam after an injury. Happy for him, because he deserved. He was playing much better in Rome, I think. Was a very, very tough match against him. Good one for me, too. Important victory for me. Will be a big match and big challenge for me, no? I gonna try my best. I know I have to play very well if I want to have chances to win. Q. Mats Wilander said he was very impressed with the way Andy was playing on clay. He described him as a tactic genius, and he's a threat to all the top players. RAFAEL NADAL: I don't know this word. Q. He said he's very dangerous. RAFAEL NADAL: That's nothing new. Q. But are you impressed as well about the way he's playing on clay, or... RAFAEL NADAL: No, I'm not impressed the way he's playing on clay. I am not answering in a bad way. I'm saying in a good way. He can play very well on all the surfaces. It's nothing new that he plays very well on clay. I always say he's able to play well on all surfaces if I really wants to do it. Is not the first time he's in semifinals of Roland Garros. I remember amazing match in semifinals against Novak when Novak was playing unbelievable in 2011, and he was very close to beat him. And it was on clay. No, no, not surprised Andy is in semifinals. He's a candidate to win Roland Garros. Before the tournament he was a candidate to win Roland Garros for me, so it's not a surprise. THE MODERATOR: Questions in Spanish. Q. David said he made many mistakes during the match. I would like to know if you are satisfied with your match. RAFAEL NADAL: Well, during these past two days I practiced a lot. I think that I managed to hit the balls a lot better, a lot better than in the past year, so I felt good really before I stepped in onto the court. But then at the beginning of the match my backhand was appalling. I made so many mistakes with my backhand; therefore, I tried with my forehand, doing more with my forehand, but I was making mistakes. But then on my backhand my shots were not long enough, not deep enough, not across the court, so I had to try and use my forehand; therefore, this was the battle. The battle for me was with my backhand to try and overcome this endless spiral I was trapped in to at last have a good forehand shot. When the balls were high and deep, I couldn't play on my backhand. This is what happened throughout the first set. No, I couldn't manage with my backhand. I thought, Play more with your forehand. Then, during the second set, I managed to do this. During the first one, I couldn't. Then I decided to turn around the ball, to hit the ball with my forehand quite often. I was surprised to see that I couldn't play my backhand shots, even though I practiced and I was feeling the ball really well before the match. Well, this is what I remember from the match. My memories are awful. So at the end of the day, I am rather happy to have been able to turn the situation around. I managed to pull through. Even though it was complicated, I managed to find solutions during the second set. Then at the end of the match I think he made many more mistakes. I changed the rhythm of the match. I played more on his forehand; therefore, I got more shots on my forehand. This is a turnaround as well, because my back was not really hurting today. It was okay. I didn't put too much stress on my back. At the beginning, I really wanted to be very careful with my backhand shots. At the same time, I didn't want to hit too strongly because I wanted to protect my back. You know, he was returning the points flat on my backhand, deep and flat. That was a problem for me. Then when I managed to react it was a lot better. When I improved with my forehand I took control. I made fewer mistakes. This is what I was saying in English before. I was saying, now, given the last two sets, the third and the fourth set, it really shows that David didn't really play well during these sets. The score shows that I played well, but also he made mistakes. Q. When you were one set all, what were you thinking about? Were you very nervous? RAFAEL NADAL: Well, I think that during the second set, even though I played better, I missed many points and opportunities. I made mistakes, as well. However, I played with less stress on my backhand shots, and then David was not playing like in the first set. He was making mistakes he was not making in the first set. So it's a combination of both things. I was playing better with my forehand shots and he was making more errors. This is what explains the rest. When I was attacking, he was defending the points. Couldn't do much more than that. So it is a good thing that I could have better forehand shots, because my position was better and my feelings, my sensations were better for the rest of the match. Q. You're going to play against Murray. You played semis against Andy Murray here, I think. What would you say about this match? RAFAEL NADAL: Well, Andy can play on all surfaces. He can play really well on clay. There's nothing in his game that would prevent him from playing really well on clay. He's gone really deep in the tournament several times here. I couldn't say that really his game has changed that much, but, you know, the best players win when they can play their best shots. Andy is really good with footwork, and his backhand sometimes can be very aggressive; therefore, I think that he can really go deep. He can win many points on his serves, which really helps him. The match will be very difficult, but, you know, we played late at night. Later on when I meet him the conditions will be quite different. If the match is to be played during the day, it's going to be quite different, yet it's going to be difficult. This is Roland Garros. You can't think that you're going to have an easy match. I know it's going to be very tight, but it's going to be semis. I hope I'll be ready for the semis. Q. Now, what about these eight hours when you had to wait for the match to start? How did you experience this? Last year this match was a final. What about this one? RAFAEL NADAL: Well, we were in the locker rooms with Carlos, Albert, Toni, and we were enjoying ourselves. But I was a bit surprised I was not to be playing on the central court. I think I would have liked to play on the central court a lot better than the Suzanne Lenglen Court. There were probably reasons, which of course I understand. But to be frank, I wanted to play on the central court. Q. Well, I suppose you said that playing on the central court or playing on the Lenglen court was like playing two different types of tournaments, I think. For the semis, it seems that the weather conditions will be different, a lot drier. Then what would you say about the surface then, the clay? RAFAEL NADAL: Well, you know, when it's sunny, when it's drier, then the balls are faster. They move faster. Generally, it's more positive for me in this case. And I wouldn't say that these are two different tournaments. This would be exaggerated. But between central court and all the other courts, there is a huge difference, that's true. It's quite different. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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