Rafa Nadal is already in the Indian Wells quarterfinals, where he will face Australian Nick Kyrgios. Not without effort. Reilly Opelka, the tallest tennis player on the circuit (2.11 meters), is always a demanding opponent. Especially when it comes to wear. Continuous jumps to subtract, races towards balls with devilish speed… After the victory, the Balearic tennis player spoke to the media and valued the match, being, at the same time, the best so far on US soil and the one that has generated the most problems on a physical level.
Foot pain: “Yes, sometimes I play with pain. Today I started well, but in the second set I felt a little worse, to be honest. I was able to keep going, keep running until the end… But yeah, I’m not in the moment to lie or hide things. I’m very happy to be playing tennis. Today was a little worse. It’s true that the last two days my foot has been bothering me a little more. It’s something that can happen. We know. Try to stay positive and to think that it is going to be the last hard court tournament. The clay will help. Now I will have to make the last effort to do my best here. Hopefully the foot can continue to hold. I am not thinking much about it, just about my tennis and in my next game.”
Best match of the tournament: “Happy to win, no matter how many sets. But I am happy, of course, to be in the quarter-finals of this great tournament, playing better, without a doubt. It has been my best match and I am happy with the way I was able to play the whole game. I just had one bad game. Other than that, I think I was solid. I had to do it against a very difficult player like Reilly.”
Rooms against Kyrgios: “Nick is tough in any condition, isn’t he? When he’s playing well and when he’s motivated he’s one of the toughest opponents, no doubt about it. Tomorrow is going to be a tough match, but we’re in the quarterfinals of Indian Wells, Masters 1000 We can’t expect anything else. I hope to be ready for it.”
Changes in the Grand Slams: “Well, I haven’t really thought about it much. Honestly, I don’t have a clear opinion. Happy with it, I don’t care. Honestly, I don’t think it’s going to make a big difference. I read that everyone (the Grand Slams) is going to be equal. In some ways, that’s positive. I don’t think that at Roland Garros it will change much. In my opinion, the biggest impact is going to be at Wimbledon. It’s very difficult to break, so the matches are very long, but not I feel like that changes a lot for Roland Garros.”
State of form: “The human mentality, normally, makes you get used to good things. For me, I’m not that kind of person, I don’t think about the past, in sporting terms. I just try to move on. That’s how this sport is, in my opinion. You don’t have a lot of time to be very sad when you lose and you don’t have a lot of time to celebrate when you win. Of course, for me it’s super surprising to be in the position I’m in, winning three titles already, to be in the quarter-finals here. say it’s a dream because I couldn’t even dream about it three months ago, two months ago. I’m just enjoying every moment.”
How to get out of bad times: “Well, today I conceded a break. I played it horrible. But I don’t know. I just feel like it’s important, in my opinion, to know yourself, to know the things you have more control over and, in moments of pressure, to play with the strokes with which you feel most confident. In terms of staying, there are different facts that help. The first is confidence. Depending on the moment you play better. When you are confident and you are winning matches, you feel more relaxed. It is easier to play at those moments. Another thing is training. All my life, I have trained at a very high intensity. I take each training as a game, I have been in this position almost every day of my life since I was a child. It helps to overcome these kinds of moments”.
Stop Opelka services: “I don’t have a secret, I can tell you what I tried. What I tried is not to help him. Play from good positions, especially when I’m serving. I tried to play with high first serve percentage, especially in tiebreaks, because then if you start to losing first serves, you open the door for him, it’s not in your hands anymore Finding the right balance between not playing too aggressive, because then you risk making mistakes, and not playing too defensively because you know he has a great shot right and will go for the winner.
Indian Wells Masters 1,000 results.