Tennis
Nadal: ‘I didn’t want to give up being the defending champion here’
Rafa Nadal didn’t hide his heartache at his early exit from the Australian Open as he explained why he didn’t want to pull out of the match against Mackenzie MacDonald despite his injury.
Rafael Nadal made clear his disappointment with the early exit and the way it came about during his final press conference in Melbourne.
The Australian Open holder was eliminated in the 2nd round of this year’s event, suffering a painful 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 loss to world No. 67 Mackenzie MacDonald and explained the reasons why he did so Match didn’t want to leave, despite a high left leg injury that visibly limited his mobility in the 3rd set.
“I didn’t want to stop being the defending champion here. I didn’t want to leave the pitch with a resignation. Better now, I lost. I have nothing to say but congratulate the opponent. That’s the sport. You do your best to the end. That’s the philosophy of sport. That’s what sport stands for. I try to follow that throughout my career.”said the 36-year-old Spaniard.
Nadal revealed that the injury problem is in his hip and although he revealed that he has been experiencing discomfort in the area for the past few days, he didn’t think it would be that serious.
“I’m sad. I’m tired. I had to keep playing without increasing the problem. I couldn’t hit a backhand and I couldn’t run. I just wanted to finish the match. Let’s see how the injury develops and how it improves affects the schedule of the next tournaments.”added Rafa.
The next scheduled tournament for Nadal is the Dubai Championships on February 27th.
Source: Tennis24
Source: sport 24
