Nadal needs ‘time, work’ to beat Djoker
‘THIS IS AMAZING’
“I’m just trying to contemplate on the journey in the last 12 months. I had the surgery exactly 12 months ago,” he added, referring to an elbow operation that saw him slump out of the world’s top 20 before bouncing back to win Wimbledon and the US Open. “To be standing now here in front of you today and managing to win this title and three out of four Slams, this is amazing. I am speechless.”
The pair’s only previous final in Australia, in 2012, developed into a record-breaking 5hr 53min slugfest — the longest in Grand MELBOURNE: A chastened Rafa Nadal said even his best tennis may have not been enough against a rampant Novak Djokovic after being thrashed in the Australian Open final on Sunday.
Although reaching the final without dropping a set, Nadal said he was still short of his best after a long injury lay-off following the U.S. Open and lacked an edge to pressure the Serb.
“Of course, he played, I think, fantastic. At the same time it’s true that when he’s playing that way, I think I needed something else,” the 17-times Grand Slam champion Nadal told reporters.
“I was not able to have that extra thing tonight, being honest.
“Playing the way he played tonight, I needed that defensive Slam history. A repeat of that epic never materialised with Nadal uncharacteristically nervous at the start and Djokovic taking an immediate advantage that he would never relinquish.
Djokovic said a fast start had always been his plan.
“(It was) exactly what I intended to do, to step out and bring on the intensity because I knew there would be intensity waiting for me on the other side.”
“I definitely needed a good start, we had both been playing well coming into the match,” said Djokovic. “I knew I had a good chance if could dictate the play.” game to finally have the chance to be offensive.
“When he was hitting, it’s true that maybe it was difficult to beat him even if I was at my 100 percent (level). But probably it would have been a little bit more of a fight.”
Beaten in just over two hours, Nadal won barely a third of the match’s points, was broken five times and conjured only a single break point in the third set, which the Serb saved. He racked up 28 unforced errors while Djokovic leaked only nine, in an astonishing display of control.
“What I need is time, I need work and I need more weeks like this one,” said Nadal.
“That’s really the only thing that I hope, is to have the chance to keep practising well and to have the chance to keep playing with healthy conditions.”