{"id":35013,"date":"2021-02-15T07:52:16","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T08:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=35013"},"modified":"2021-02-15T10:09:23","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T10:09:23","slug":"the-nadal-admission-to-make-rivals-shudder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=35013","title":{"rendered":"The Nadal admission to make rivals shudder"},"content":{"rendered":"

World No.2 Rafael Nadal<\/a> has hit his rivals with a frightening admission on the cusp of the quarter-finals, declaring the form he had shown in today's first set the best of his Australian Open campaign yet.<\/p>\n

The 20-time Grand Slam champion marched into the last eight in a 6-3 6-4 6-2 victory over Italian Fabio Fognini at Rod Laver Arena<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Watch the Australian Open with live streams of every court at 9Now. Click here to start watching!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The straight-sets win means Nadal is yet to drop a set in this year's Australian Open, having breezed past Laslo Dere, Michael Mmoh, Cameron Norrie and Fognini.<\/p>\n

But despite the fact the Spanish star has played exceptional tennis right throughout his campaign, the 34-year-old was able to separate today's first set from the rest.<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/p>\n

He added that his back injury, which has hobbled him since his arrival in Australia, was starting to get better. <\/p>\n

"The first set I played has without a doubt been my best level in the tournament," Nadal said in his post-match conference.<\/p>\n

"I was able to practice for two days in a row. That makes an important difference.<\/p>\n

"But at the same time, yeah, it's important to find positive feelings now. My physical condition needs to keep improving.<\/p>\n

"But I think this match helps, too. I was not able to practice the proper way for the last 19 days, but yesterday I started to increase the amount of work on the practice, and today has been a positive victory with some long points, so that helps for the next match."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/wwos\/status\/1361205658545225732?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

Nadal said in his on-court interview that his back had been improving.<\/p>\n

"I'm happy that my back is holding up better," Nadal said on Nine's coverage.<\/p>\n

"Tomorrow is going to be an important day of practice again.<\/p>\n

"Hopefully I will be able to build well and let's see if I am able to play a good match."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nadal is set to compete in his 13th Australian Open quarter-final and his 43rd round of eight in a Grand Slam.<\/p>\n

He will square off with world No.6 Stefanos Tsitsipas for a place in the semi-finals after Italian Matteo Berrettini pulled out of tonight's clash with the Greek star due to injury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

World No.2 Rafael Nadal has hit his rivals with a frightening admission on the cusp of the quarter-finals, declaring the form he had shown in […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35013"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35013"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35015,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35013\/revisions\/35015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}