World number one Rafael Nadal is now focusing his attention to the Australian Open 2014 tournament which begins in a week’s time. The Spaniard said that the
hot conditions in Melbourne will work to his favor.
“I personally like if it’s hot,” Nadal said after winning the Qatar Open final on Sunday. “Well, if it’s crazy hot, you know, for everybody is tough. Normally when the conditions are warm, the bounces on the ball are higher. The speed of the ball is a little bit, you know, quicker, and the ball flies more on the air. So that’s positive things for my game normally.”
Nadal said that he’s slated to practice in Australia by Tuesday.
“I going to arrive there on Monday evening,” Nadal said. “I going to practice Tuesday at 4:00. I going to have almost a week to practice well there, and I think hopefully will be enough to acclimate my game to Australia.
“If your game is not adapted in six days is because you will never be adapted. That’s my feeling.”
The 2009 Australian Open champion will enter the event as the top seed. He missed this event last year since he extended his break to fully recuperate from
the knee injury.
“The people are so focused on defending points and these kind of things, and for me really the pressure of defending points is zero, because the only
pressure for me is try to keep playing well. I try to keep having chances to win,” Nadal said.
“When I start the season I see a season like everybody start from zero, and for me the ranking is just the race. From January to end of November, when they finish the season, I take that like — well, we start here and we will see how many points I can make it in Australia. But the pressure is to play well there and to try to have chances.”
