“I’m an outdoor tennis player, I can’t fool you with that,” Rafa Nadal said as soon as he qualified for the Australian Open final. Former tennis player Jim Courier knew where to ask the Spaniard, who years ago had said in other Grand Slam tournaments such as the US Open that playing indoors hurt his tennis more than the rest of the players.
With an intermittent storm in Melbourne, the day to roof the Rod Laver Arena had arrived for a Rafa Nadal who had played the entire tournament outdoors. And all that cocktail of sensations, nothing more and nothing less than in a Grand Slam semifinal against Matteo Berrettini, to whom these conditions fit him like a glove due to his great serve and a flat forehand.
However, Rafa Nadal and his team were prepared for this situation after thinking a lot about whether or not to go to Australia weeks before to participate in one of the preparation tournaments for the tournament. The man from Manacor is not used to playing in this type of ATP 250 event, but the insistence of his coaching staff that he had to adapt to the track had its effect.
The Rod Laver Arena is a court with its peculiarities and knowing that Rafa had to try to fight for the 21st Grand Slam, the plan to play the more matches the better was a reality. Nadal played four matches at the ATP 250 in Melbourne, winning the final without disheveling Maxime Cressy , but there he achieved the most important thing: he played with the roof on another day of similar stormy conditions. Against his pupil from the academy, the Finn Emil Ruusuvuori, the number six in the world was able to test all kinds of balls and serves to have many more weapons today to dismantle his rival as he demonstrated in the first two sets.
«The other day I suffered a lot with the heat. I usually play better outdoors because I can put more spin on the ball, but I played indoors a couple of times the week before the Australian Open and I’ve been able to see all the reactions of the ball. I have not found anything wrong in these conditions », Nadal asserted.
It is quite likely, at least that is what the weather report says, that Nadal will have to play on Sunday with the roof too because there are options for rain. “That week of work was essential for my confidence and now I feel more alive than ever” , settled the Spaniard revealing one of the secrets of success in this Australian Open.
