Aussie Grand Slam wide open, says Rafa
Defending champion Rafael Nadal says this year’s Australian Open is a
lottery, with any one of a dozen players capable of winning. The world
number two Spaniard, who beat Roger Federer here last year in a gripping
five-set final, admitted he was not the favourite this time after his
injury layoff, but didn’t want to say who he thought was.
“We will see what happens, I don’t know,” he said.
“A lot of players can win right now. I don’t want to say everybody,
but like 12 players, 13 players have a good chance.” Federer is
obviously one of them, as is Nadal, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, with
Nikolay Davydenko the form player having beaten the Spaniard in the
Qatar Open final this month.
Nadal’s failure to win that tournament means he comes into the
opening Grand Slam of the season without a title in eight months, with
the last one coming on the Barcelona clay in April. Nadal said he hadn’t
had bad results, but was just struggling to get back to winning
tournaments.
“I didn’t have bad results the last five months, but I didn’t have
perfect results,” he said.
“But I played, I was there (for) all the tournaments. Sure, it’s
true, playing against the top players I didn’t have very good results,
but I wasn’t playing bad. I just need a little bit more.”
With injuries hampering the 23-year-old for much of last year, he
faces a telling time at the Australian Open, which should provide a
guide as to his current standing in men’s tennis.
He insists the confidence is there, it’s just a question of once
again winning a final.
“The confidence? The only way to have confidence is winning matches,
winning important matches. I did that in Abu Dhabi and I did that in
Doha,” he said, referring to his two warm-up tournaments.
“So I think I am in the right way. It needs a little bit more time...
but I am ready to try to play my best tennis. I think I am playing well,
I think I am playing much better than what I did in the last four
months.”
He opens his tournament with a first round match against Australian
Peter Luczak, with Briton Andy Murray looming as a possible
quarter-final opponent. Nadal was not ready to look that far ahead.
“I never talk about quarter-finals before getting there,” he said.
“There are four matches until the quarter-finals. We will see what’s
happen before that.”
MELBOURNE, Sunday (AFP) |