Defending champion Rafael Nadal is aiming to remove self-doubts at this week’s Madrid Masters 2014 tournament, following his straight quarterfinal losses at Monte Carlo and Barcelona.
“When you lose, you have a hard moment, you have more doubts,” Nadal said. “But that’s what happened. I’ve already said it several times. I didn’t try to win Monte Carlo 12 times or Barcelona 12 times. Maybe that isn’t normal. This is the reality of the situation. Maybe it’s normal to lose three times in the quarter-finals. Maybe what’s not normal is what happened during the past nine years.”
Nadal lost in the Monte Carlo Masters quarterfinal to David Ferrer and made an exit at the same stage at last week’s Barcelona Open to Nicolas Almagro.
“I’m here to fight and to try to play even better,” said Nadal. “I don’t think I have to change many things. I think I can change very small things, and the change can be quite drastic and quite big. That’s what I’m working on right now.
“I’ve been training, trying to do things properly, as I’ve been doing always. I hope that it just works out. I have been working since I lost in Barcelona. I tried to train well to come here. If things don’t come out well, we will go to Rome; if things don’t work out there, we will go to Paris.
“That’s it. You have to continue and continue and continue, and think that things are going to work out for you. That’s what I’m going to try to do every day. When you come from tough moments like this, you come back with a little more intensity to try to be back as soon as possible. That’s what I’m trying to do right now.”
