Rafael Nadal shrugged off his Madrid Masters final defeat to Roger Federer and insisted that it would not have a detrimental effect on his bid to lift a record fifth successive French Open title.
The world No. 1 saw his 33-match winning run on clay brought to a halt in a one-sided 6-4, 6-4 loss to his old rival in the pair’s 20th career meeting.
But Nadal, who has won the last four French Open titles and has never been defeated in Paris, believes the slower, Roland Garros courts will suit him more.
PHOTO: AP
“This means nothing in terms of Paris, it’s a completely different surface,” said Nadal, who has defeated Federer in the last three French Open finals.
“He was better than me [in Madrid on Sunday] and deserved to win, but the court was very quick and that helped him,” he said. “I played too short, made too many mistakes and he made the most of that.”
PHOTO: AP
READY FOR FRANCE
For Federer, Sunday’s win was a timely boost in his campaign to lift an elusive French Open.
Federer’s win ended an 18-month, five-match losing streak against the Spaniard, a run that included three Grand Slam finals — last year’s French Open and Wimbledon, as well as this year’s Australian Open.
It also halted Nadal’s 33-match winning streak on clay, a sequence stretching back over a year to the Rome second round last year.
Federer fired two aces, his fifth and sixth of the 88-minute final, to wrap up the victory and lift his record in finals against his Spanish rival to 5-11. Federer now heads into the French Open, which starts on Sunday, with a huge confidence boost after finally defeating the man who stripped him of his Wimbledon title last summer.
“Clearly I’m very happy to win,” Federer said. “I played well — you have to against Rafa on clay. There are no easy ways to beat him. I mixed it up well, served well and was dangerous on the return game.”
“I’ve had some bad losses this year but everything is starting to fall into place, it’s the right time to get a victory like this,” he said.
Nadal, who had won claycourt titles in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome this spring, was visibly jaded from his semi-final on Saturday, when he needed more than four hours to defeat Novak Djokovic.
The top seed was unable to squeeze motivation or power out of a weary body after complaining of problems with his knees in Saturday’s marathon encounter.
The second-seeded Swiss fired 25 winners against just 12 for Nadal. The 13-time Grand Slam title winner Federer broke twice, while Nadal was unable to convert on any of his four break chances.
STILL BEHIND
Sunday’s result gave Federer his seventh career win against the world No. 1, compared with 13 defeats. It was also his 58th title.
“I played four hours on Saturday, so I was tired. But if Roger played just 80 minutes in his semi-final, that’s because he was better than me on Saturday,” he said.
Federer won 585,000 euros (US$790,000) and a car as he extracted some revenge in the pair’s first meeting since the Australian Open final five months ago, which ended with him reduced to tears.
Nadal still leads Federer 11-5 in finals, including wins in the last three at Roland Garros.
The Spaniard’s defeat was only his fifth on clay over 155 matches dating back to 2005.
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