Now Nadal turns his attention to Barcelona
BARCELONA: After his eight-year winning run in Monte Carlo was ended by Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal is quickly refocusing on winning an eighth title at the Barcelona Open.
Going into another clay-court tournament that Nadal has dominated, the Spaniard said he still needed to improve following a lengthy injury layoff before he’s able to beat the likes of Djokovic in a final.
“When you make it to the final in Monte Carlo you cannot think that you had a bad week,” Nadal said yesterday. “Now I’m in Barcelona and I want to enjoy it. I love playing here.”
“Against the world No 1 you can win or lose, and this time I lost.”
Nadal has reached five consecutive finals since returning in February from a knee injury – winning three, and losing two. This time, he won’t be the top-seeded player at Real Club de Tenis Barcelona. That honour goes to compatriot David Ferrer.
“I think I’m on the right track but missing things after all that happened,” said Nadal, who opens against either Carlos Berlocq or Daniel Gimeno-Traver tomorrow. “They are both good players on clay.”
Break points
In first round play yesterday, Ivan Dodig saved five of seven break points in beating Aljaz Bedene 6-7 6-3 6-2. Andrey Kuznetsov took only 46 minutes to beat Igor Sijsling 6-1, 6-3, and Paolo Lorenzi defeated Guillaume Rufin 6-4, 6-2 after winning 80 percent of points on first serve. Ernests Gulbis topped Radek Stepanek 7-6 6-2.
Meanwhile in Stuttgart, Australian Open finalist Li Na said yesterday she was pleased her on-court success had triggered a tennis boom in her native China as she prepares to launch her clay-court season at Stuttgart’s WTA tournament.
“Now so many kids want to be professionals, they see the games broadcast on television. When I was little, it was quite different,” admitted the 31year-old, who is the second seed in Stuttgart behind Maria Sharapova.
Li is a megastar in China where her 2011 French Open triumph was watched by 125 million on television, while an estimated 400 million watched the news the morning after.
She has risen to fifth in the world having reached this year’s Australian Open final, where she lost to Victoria Azarenka, having also reached the 2011 final.
It was her breakthrough season as she went on to beat Italy’s Francesca Schiavone in the French Open final to capture her only Grand Slam title to date.
Li even made the cover of Time magazine earlier this year, after being voted one of their 100 most influential people in the world, but does not allow that to go to her head.
“Whether everyone knows me in China? I can’t really tell you that, because our country is very big,” she told reporters with a wink at yesterday’s press conference.
Nevertheless her debut as a Time cover-girl clearly impressed the tennis star, even if it took a while for the penny to drop.
“When I saw the cover, I thought ‘I know that person’,” she beamed.
“That was very cool and exciting. I hope it helps the sport of tennis in China.” – Sapa-AP