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Rafael Nadal warned that he knew how to correct his mistakes before his defense of the French Open title after crashing in the quarter-finals of the Rome Masters on Saturday, the final warm-up before Roland Garros.
The nine-time Roma winner fell 6-2, 7-5 on a wet night in the Italian capital to Argentine Diego Schwartzman, a player the second-seeded had defeated in all nine previous meetings.
It was Nadal’s last chance to fine-tune before his bid for a 13th French Open and a record 20 Grand Slam to match Roger Federer in just over a week.
“It is a completely special and unpredictable year,” said the 34-year-old.
“I’ll probably come home and then we’ll see what’s going on. I did my job here.
“I fought to the end. But by losing so many serves, you can’t hope to win a match.
“Something I have to fix. I know how to do it.
“I will keep working and practicing with the right attitude and try to give myself a chance to be ready.
“I did a couple of things right and others wrong. And that is. At least I played three games ”.
The two-time defending champion was returning after a long hiatus imposed by the coronavirus after skipping the US Open.
Nadal beat compatriot Pablo Carreño Busta, US Open semifinalist, 6-1, 6-1 in his first match this week, followed by Serbian Dusan Lajovic 6-1, 6-3.
But Schwartzman put in an impressive performance to leave Nadal unanswered.
“After not competing for so long, I played two good games, and now today I played a bad one against a good opponent,” Nadal said.
“It wasn’t my night at all,” he said.
“So we have to think internally why, how can I fix it.”
Schwartzman, with just three career titles to Nadal’s 85, said he came close to beating the Spaniard a few times.
“I think four or five times I was close enough to feel that maybe if I play my best tennis I will have opportunities,” said the world number 15.
“Also, I was coming back to this tournament after seven months, more or less, eight months.
“And I was thinking, okay, tennis, sometimes it’s crazy and I wasn’t playing well, but today I might have a chance.”
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