Rafael Nadal credited his uncle Toni and the rest of his family for teaching him from a young age how to control his emotions on the court and fight for every point after his epic comeback win at Indian Wells on Saturday.
The Spaniard overcame a 5-2 third set deficit to beat young American Sebastian Korda 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (3) and advance to the third round of the tournament.
“The reason why I have been fighting during all my tennis career or I have the right self-control or I have the right attitude and fighting spirit is because I grew up with this kind of education,” Nadal told reporters after the match. “My uncle, my family, never allowed me to break a racket, never allowed me to say bad words or give up on a match... The most important thing was the fact that I grow up with the right values.”
Photo: AFP
The 21-time Grand Slam champion has won all 16 of his matches this year, but said that despite all of his success, he does not possess superhuman confidence.
“If people believe that I am a believer all the time that I am going to come back, not true. I am not like this. I don’t have this amazing self-confidence that even if I am 5-2, okay, I’m going to come back — no,” Nadal said.
“But in my mind is, okay, is almost impossible. I don’t want to give up. I am going to keep trying ... just try to keep going and to put the things a little bit more difficult to the opponent,” he added.
Korda said that he noticed Nadal change his strategy when his back was against the wall trailing 5-2 in the third.
“He started playing a lot different. He moved closer to the baseline,” Korda told reporters. “I could see that he was a little worried, changing up his tactics. I just didn’t play good games, and he took advantage of it.”
While victory was not assured, Nadal said that it would have been if he had simply lied down.
“In that position, in 100 matches, probably you going to lose 90,” he said. “But if you give up, you’re going to lose 100. If you are there, you can win 10 percent.”
WOMEN’S SINGLES
World No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka on Saturday sustained a shock loss in her first match at Indian Wells, falling to Italian Jasmine Paolini 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the second round.
The Belarusian committed eight double faults and converted just three of her nine break point opportunities on a hot day.
Paolini said she was as surprised as anyone to come out on the winning side of the match.
“I’m so happy. I didn’t expect this moment,” she said. “I’m just happy to be here in the third round. I think I played an amazing match. The crowd was amazing. I enjoyed it very much.”
Sabalenka was a favorite to win the event after world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty and world No. 2 Barbora Krejcikova withdrew ahead of the start of the WTA 1000 tournament.
Sabalenka follows Karolina Pliskova and Garbine Muguruza out of the tournament, after both top 10 players lost on Friday.
WOMEN’S DOUBLES
In women’s doubles on Saturday, the Chinese pairing of Xu Yifan and Zhaoxuan Yang defeated duo Magda Linette of Poland and Chan Hao-ching of Taiwan 6-1, 6-3.
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