MADRID, Jan. 27 (SportsFinding) –
The Spanish tennis player Rafa Nadal was happy to have moved to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open after defeating the Australian Nick Kyrgios on Monday before whom he already knew he would “reach the limit”.
“When you play against him you know that you are going to have to reach the limit because you usually have few 'break' balls. In the end, you play against a very talented punch like Kyrgios and you know that you have to do things well if you want to progress” , Nadal said in statements to 'Eurosport'.
The manacorí was “happy for the victory”. “But also for having been able to react and redirect the pace of the game again getting well,” he added after having wasted serve with 5-4 in the room to have closed the game.
“In the end it is true that I had something nervous when closing the game and I did not get the ease with which I did the rest of the game,” he said about that moment of a duel that was complicated by “two errors “in the second set, in relation to the 15-40 that wasted at the beginning because he lacked” some aggressiveness to hit the ball “and the service lost later.
“Then I think I played a good tie-break in the third set by removing the double foul of 6/5 taking out to achieve the set,” recalled Manacor, who in the fourth set had “the feeling of being better than him “.
In this sense, the world number one celebrated having “dominated” in that sleeve “the points from the bottom to 5-4” and having “tried to move him down the track to see him more tired” because he felt “more comfortable “.
Finally, Nadal did not want to forget the memory of the late Kobe Bryant. “Days like today are to forget. When I woke up I looked at the phone and I saw the news and, honestly, it was hard for me to fall asleep again,” he lamented.
“Even if I didn't have a direct relationship with him, he is someone with whom you have grown and lived his triumphs and all the incredible things he has achieved. He is one of the reference sportsmen in the world of sport and it is a very sad day and I can only wish that both he and his daughter rest in peace and all the encouragement for his family, “he said wearing a Los Angeles Lakers cap, the NBA team of the stellar escort.