Rafa says that he felt something when he was preparing for the final.
A tough moment for Rafael Nadal that was one match away to even Pete Sampras record of 14 slams… but that didn’t happen as the world no.1 suffered from an injury to his back.
Rafa looked to struggle when he was 3-6 1-2 down, but apparently that injury started already during the warm –up.
Actually Nadal’s track record in Melbourne is not that great from an injury point of view as he missed the tournament in 2006 (foot injury) and in 2013 (knee). In 2010 he had to retire in the quarters against Murray (knee) and in 2011 he played with a nasty injury at his hamstring to lose in straight sets against David Ferrer.
Rafa: I was not very lucky
The world no.1 was rather sad “Is true that I was not very lucky and this is a tournament that is painful for me. Is a tournament that I love so much. Is a tournament that I feel the conditions are good for me, warm conditions that I like, good crowd. Court, is true that is faster than the previous ones. Normally we play in normal speed conditions that I like to play.
“So, yeah, is a tournament that I really had some troubles physically in my career and is something that is painful for me. But that’s part of life. That’s part of sport. Is not the end of the world. Is just another tough moment. Is not the first. I feel very lucky that I was able to enjoy much more happy moments than tough moments. At the end is a sport of victories. People remember the victories, don’t remember the losses. For me is a tough one because I felt that I was ready to compete well. But in a few weeks that’s going to pass. I’m going to keep playing, going to keep training hard. A lot of people in the world have lot of very tough days. I am not this kind of person, so I feel very lucky.”
