rogerfederer.com - Out against Nadal

Out against Nadal

The clash of the titans at Indian Wells turned out to be a non event – unfortunately with our Roger on the losing side against Rafa Nadal 4-6, 2-6. Our Champ – always the gentleman – refused to blame the problem with his back saying: "I'm happy to be out there and able to compete, but it's obviously a small issue," he said. "That doesn't work against guys like Rafa". He added, "you could see at least I could serve full basically, and that always gives you a direction". He also said that he didn't want to talk about his back too much "because I don't like to undermine his performance, either". Rafa was just as magnanimous in victory saying "if I think that I am better than him because I beat him 19 against 10, I will be very stupid and very arrogant," he said. "This is not the case."

Roger had a miserable match against his old foe with only a slight glimmer of hope in the second set to get to 2-3 from 0-3 but Nadal took the remaining games in the set to win the match. It has to be said to Roger’s immense credit that he continued to play when obviously hampered by injury. There are a lot of players who would have retired rather than battling on never mind fashioning a break so early in the second set.

Next up will be the Mutua Madrid Open in May.