RAFAEL NADAL KING OF TENNIS

2021 Monte Carlo Masters QF Rafael Nadal vs. Andrey Rublev  2-6 6-4 2-6

Rafa: “For some reason I had problems with my serve. I don't understand why, because I was not having problems in the practices at all. But today, was one of those days that my serve was a disaster.

Serving like this, the serve creates an impact on the rest of the game. When you serve with no confidence, you are just focusing on trying to serve, not thinking about how you want to hit the ball. You just think about what you have to do with the serve to put the ball in.

When you face great player like him and you don't play well, you should lose. That's easy to analyse.

He played well and he deserved it more than me. I fought. That's the positive thing, I was there. But you can't expect to win against a player like him losing my serve… too many times… He played great. He played aggressive, as I knew he would. Well done to him. He's a great guy. I wish him all the best.

The only thing that I can do is go to Barcelona and keep practising, keep practising, try to fix the things that didn't work well. I think my backhand today was not good enough. Lots of mistakes. I was not able to open the court with my backhand then."

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