Rafael Nadal was quick in his effort against Fabio Fognini defeating him in straight sets and moving to the
Australian Open quarterfinals.
Heading into the Australian Open Rafael Nadal was a bit of a wild card struggling with back issues but it seems like those issues have improved quite a bit as there was no rust in his match against Fabio Fognini. A straight-sets victory was on the menu for the Spaniard who was very happy to move to the quarterfinals:
"I play tennis. I like tennis. I like what I am doing. That's the main thing. Of course, I am very motivated to win Grand Slams and to play in the most important events of the year. No doubt about that… [But] I have never been obsessed [with] trying to be the best. I just do [it] my way. That’s worked for me."
It's a very healthy way to look at things as obsessing over anything often times becomes detrimental to the effort itself. For a Nadal, this way of thinking and working worked extremely well so far in his career. He underlined ambition as something important but only if it doesn't go too far:
"I think ambition is important, to have an ambition, but a healthy ambition. If you have too much ambition, then you can be frustrated when you are not able to achieve all the things that you wanted. I never approached the sport and my career that way."
Focus once more shifted towards the pandemic and the opportunity to play tennis in a global crisis. Asked about if he feels privileged he said:
“We are lucky to be able to keep doing our job without a doubt. We can't complain at all.
The Spaniard will face Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinal. The Greek has a 1-6 H2H record against Nadal but he will enter the match on fresher legs as Berrettini withdrew before opening serve.