“Stop the Tour or Keep Going”: Rafael Nadal Reveals His Take on Quarantine Challenges

Fans recently witnessed one of the best matches at the Australian Open 2021. World No.6 Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated the 20-time Grand Slam champion, Rafael Nadal, in the quarters of the Grand Slam. The Greek player made a spectacular comeback after losing the first two sets. The final scoreline of the match was 2-6, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4, 7-5.

In the post-match press conference. Rafael Nadal faced a really intriguing question. He was asked whether the quarantine should just be there before the Grand Slams or players should also be put inside a bubble before the ATP tournaments as well. In the same question, the person also asked if instead of quarantine, other alternatives like less traveling were feasible or not.

“This was the first event we had in this quarantine,” began Rafa. “We didn’t have events before that. I mean we had maybe, New York but it was not the same…It’s difficult to make predictions about the things gonna happen. But, there is a very clear thing. There are two options, stop the tour or keep going.”

Rafa highlighted that it was really not possible for him to make any predictions about whether the quarantine would exist in future tournaments or not. As far as tennis is concerned, he admitted that wanted the tour to continue.

“My personal feeling is, it’s tough for the players, of course, have to do bubbles in every single event for flying… A lot of players have family and they can’t have the family with them. So, that makes our tour tougher than ever. But, in the other hand, if we stop the tour, why and how, a lot of jobs gonna suffer a lot,” continued the Spaniard.

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“Need to think a little big bigger”- Rafael Nadal

The World No.2 player believes that even though there are complications in going ahead with the tour, the players need to think a little bit bigger. He was clearly not in favor of canceling the events due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“If we stop our sport again, a lot of people gonna suffer. We need to have a little bit more, I mean, we need to think a little bit bigger now. Of course, we need to protect players. Probably, we need to find the players with the ranking to not force them to keep playing… This situation is very tough,” concluded Nadal.

Rafa will surely be disappointed with his performance at the Australian Open 2021. He lost to Dominic Thiem last time in the quarters and fell to Stefanos Tsitsipas this time at the Australian Open. However, fans still have very high expectations from him. Will Nadal be able to win his 21st Grand Slam title in 2021?

Also Read: ‘Means a Lot’: Rafael Nadal ‘Sad’ to Be Exiting Australian Open 2021 Without Challenging for Title