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Rafael Nadal celebrates during his ATP World Tour Finals against Andrey Rublev at the O2 Arena on November 15, 2020.
Rafael Nadal insisted that he can still win the ATP Finals for the first time despite a damaging 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (7/4) loss to Dominic Thiem of Austria on Tuesday.
Thiem dominated Nadal behind closed doors at London’s O2 Arena to make a dent in the Spanish star’s attempt to finally lift the only major award missing from his crammed trophy cabinet.
Nadal had beaten Andrey Rublev in straight sets in his first match, but the 34-year-old was unable to face Thiem in a high-quality clash.
Now Nadal, who lost the 2010 and 2013 finals of the event, has to beat reigning champion Stefanos Tsitsipas in his final group match to keep alive his hopes of reaching the semi-finals of the prestigious end-of-season tournament.
Despite his dangerous position, Nadal was encouraged by the way he competed against the inspired Thiem and believes that he will be very useful in the life-and-death matchup with Tsitsipas.
“I think he played an incredible game, and I played well too. So my feeling is not negative. I lost, but I had a lot of chances in the first and then I broke in the second set,” Nadal said.
“I’m happy with the way I played. I think I have a better chance of having a very good result now than five days ago because the level of tennis, even if I lost today, is much higher for me.”
Nadal, who last month equaled Roger Federer’s record of 20 Grand Slams by winning the French Open, has won 86 titles, but only one of them has come on an indoor hard court.
The world number two has qualified for the ATP Finals for 16 years in a row, but his record in the eight-man elite event pales in comparison to Federer and Novak Djokovic after six injury withdrawals.
Potentially facing another disappointment in the Finals, Nadal said he couldn’t explain his troubles at the event.
“I don’t know. I think that even if I never won here, I don’t want to pretend to be arrogant at all, because I’m not. But I really don’t need to show myself or anyone that if I’m playing my best tennis I think I can win at all surfaces and against any player, ”he said.
“I never won the World Tour Finals. That’s real at the same time. So there’s no problem with that. I know I have to play the best I can if I want to have chances.
“Today was a match that I played at a very high level. I have a match against Tsitsipas in two days. It’s going to be another tough one.
“I hope I’m ready. I think playing like this I’m sure I can get my chances in the tournament.”
World number three Thiem, who defeated Tsitsipas in his first match, has won his first two matches at this year’s tournament as he hopes to go one better than second place last year.
Thiem will be guaranteed a place in the semi-finals if Tsitsipas defeats seventh seed Russian Rublev in Tuesday’s other tie.
The 27-year-old has already enjoyed a year to remember, reaching two Grand Slam finals and winning one of the four majors for the first time when he defeated Alexander Zverev in the US Open final in September.
“It was a great match. I was very lucky to get the first set after being 5-2 down in the tie-break,” Thiem said.
“Rafa is there 100 percent from the first point to the last and he knew he had to be focused.
“I had the feeling that the match was of a very high standard. The atmosphere would have been unreal if the fans were in the arena.”
