Carlos Moya, coach of World No. 1 Rafael Nadal, is breaking down the Spaniard's performances at Roland Garros for ATPWorldTour.com. Nadal is pursuing his 11th trophy on the Parisian terre battue. On Monday, the defending champion defeated Germany’s Maximilian Marterer, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6(4) to advance to the quarter-finals, where he'll face 11th seed Diego Schwartzman for a place in the last four. Moya lists five key takeaways from Nadal’s win over Marterer. [ALSO LIKE] Caught Flat-footed ... There was no excuse for Rafa to go down 0-2 at the beginning of the match. We were kind of rushed because the previous match on Court Philippe-Chatrier ended a little earlier than expected. Rafa was grabbing something to eat when we got...
Rafael Nadal made a shocking revelation on Monday at Roland Garros after defeating Maximilian Marterer to advance to his 12th quarter-final on the Parisian terre battue. “It’s not true that I was born on clay,” Nadal said, eliciting laughter in the press room. With that being said, the 10-time champion was not completely joking. “Everybody thought I practised on clay all my life, and it’s not true. I practiced a lot on hard court when I was a kid. I practised on clay, too, but a lot on hard,” Nadal said. “During all my career, my game adapted very well to this surface and I've had amazing success. Honestly, I had success on all the surfaces and I worked hard...
Before arriving in Budapest at the end of April for the Gazprom Hungarian Open, Marco Cecchinato had won just five of his first 34 tour-level matches. Little did the Italian know that he would go on to capture his maiden ATP World Tour title on the red clay as a lucky loser. “Maybe it is a dream,” Cecchinato told ATPWorldTour.com at the time. Little did he know what would come in the weeks ahead. When the World No. 72 began his Roland Garros campaign, he had never won a Grand Slam main draw match. But after defeating reigning Nitto ATP Finals runner-up David Goffin in four sets on Sunday, Cecchinato advanced to the quarter-finals. [ALSO LIKE] “This is the best...
Throughout Rafael Nadal's career, his uncle, mentor and former coach, Toni Nadal, has been an instrumental figure in guiding the Spaniard to success. Nadal, winner of 78 tour-level titles, has never downplayed the importance of having Toni by his side. His uncle stepped down from coaching duties at the end of last season and has since primarily focused his time into running the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar in Mallorca, Spain. Last year, Toni led coaching duties as Nadal defeated Stan Wawrinka 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 to lift his 10th title on the Parisian terre battue. This week, however, Toni is in Paris solely to support the World No. 1 in his quest for an 11th championship at the event. He...
If you’re going to break through to your first Grand Slam quarter-final, you might as well do it in style, right? No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev came back from two sets to one down for the third consecutive match on Sunday, defeating Karen Khachanov to set a blockbuster quarter-final against two-time Roland Garros semi-finalist Dominic Thiem. And in doing so, Zverev joined an elite group. The German 21-year-old is the eighth player in the Open Era to survive three consecutive five-setters in Paris, and the first since Tommy Robredo in 2013. He is also the first to win three five-setters in a row at a major since Sam Querrey at Wimbledon last year. [ALSO LIKE] It was a long time...