Rafael Nadal on defeats after difficult second half of the year: “What’s going on is not a big surprise”

For the first time since 2009, Rafael Nadal has lost four consecutive matches, the latest a defeat by Felix Auger-Aliassime at the ATP Finals which leaves his hopes of ending the year hanging by a thread.

Nadal has already written off those chances – he’ll need a near miracle to get out of his round-robin group having lost his first two clashes, and then go on to win the title for the first time – and he’s already focused on 2023 and trying to arrive in Melbourne for the defence of his Australian Open title in good shape.

That’s something that’s not been possible since Wimbledon, where he tore his abdominal muscle and had to pull out before the semi-final, and again since the US Open, where he re-injured the muscle.

Injuries left Nadal short at back end of year

On Tuesday, he played decently but didn’t take his chances and in-form Auger-Aliassime took his opportunity to record a first win over the Spaniard.”

“Experience what’s going on today – (by) ‘today’ I mean the last couple of weeks on the court – is not a big surprise,” Nadal told reporters. “That (does) not mean that I am not sad about the results. It’s something that can happen.

“Have been super-difficult months that I went through. Just accept that tomorrow start my 2023 season. That’s all. The only thing that I can do is keep working, keep doing the things that I need to do to give myself a chance to start with real chances in 2023. That’s the thing.”

Nadal said he will take positives from the fact that he was able to return to the Tour first at the Paris Masters and then in Turin. Having won the Australian Open and French Open, he gave himself a chance to end the year ranked No 1 at the grand old age of 36.

“I was able to play two tournaments in the last three weeks,” he said. “That’s the positive thing, something that I was not able to do it for a while.

“I don’t think I forget how to play tennis, how to be strong enough mentally. I just need to recover all these positive feelings and all this confidence and all this strong mentality that I need to be at the level that I want to be. And I don’t know if I going to reach that level again. But what I don’t have any doubt, that I going to die for it.”

Nadal thinking ahead to Australia

Nadal’s win in Melbourne in January was one of the more remarkable in his 22 Grand Slam title victories. Now he is already thinking ahead to returning to Australia, hopefully injury-free.

“What can happen in Australia? I don’t know. Remain a month and a half. What can I do to give myself a positive chances to have a good season next year? As always, be humble enough to accept that I have a challenge in front, that the last six months have been very difficult for me, and I need to work more and I need to recover things that I lost because I was not able to practice the proper way, I was not able to compete the proper way.

What I have to do now is come back, work hard, stay positive every single day, accept the challenge, accept that I going to need to suffer a little bit more.”

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