Rafael Nadal lost his 3rd consecutive semifinal on clay in Madrid to remain titleless in 2019. The Spanish sensation was defeated by an extremely sharp Stefanos Tsitsipas that found the solution against King of Clay after losing to him 3 times without winning a singles set.
I wouldn’t have lost to him if…NADAL
Rafa was visibly upset after the semifinal. When asked about the improvements of Stefanos’ tennis, The Spaniard took “the full blame” for his loss and comment
“Being honest, my feeling is that it was more about me tonight. He is young, he is improving, and he has good talent. But I don’t see myself losing that match if I play the same level that I played in Barcelona final [2018] or Australia at the beginning of the season. That’s my feeling. That’s my truth, maybe it’s not the truth, but that is my feeling.
I have not played well enough. I’ve won a lot for many years on this surface, but this year it hasn’t been like that. I didn’t have a good feeling today to do the things I wanted to do, and that’s all. I was clear what I had to do today, but tonight I wasn’t capable of doing it.”
Nadal like Zverev
Unfortunately, Stefanos had to stomach a similar comment from Sascha Zverev when he defeated him in the quarters in Toronto. At that time the German said that the Greek didn’t even play well.
Probably both forgot that tennis is a game with two players and the outcome depends on both.
