LONDON, United Kingdom – Rafael Nadal insists he can recover from his brutal 6-3, 6-0 defeat against Roger Federer in time to book a place in the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour Finals.
Nadal suffered one of the more chastening losses of his career on Tuesday as Federer swept to victory in just an hour at London’s O2 Arena.
The Spaniard was powerless to prevent Federer delivering one of his all-time great performances, but he can still qualify for the last four with a victory over France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in his final Group B match on Thursday.
“Now is not the moment to be down and say goodbye, it is the moment to keep fighting,” Nadal said.
“I’m still in the tournament and I will be in the semi-finals if I win the next match.
“I didn’t play badly in the first set so I must keep a positive attitude and just accept that he played better than me.”
Nadal admitted it was impossible to live with Federer in that kind of form on one of his favourite surfaces.
“I accept he played a fantastic level. A very, very top level. Something that only one player like Roger can arrive at,” Nadal said.
“When you play against Federer and he’s playing like this the only way to stay in the match is to get free points with the serve and I couldn’t do that.
“He was too good for me. When I beat him in the Roland Garros final in 2008 it was a similar thing but the difference is that was the final of a Grand Slam and this was a round-robin match.
“But his level is probably higher here because all the conditions are perfect for him as the bounce is not too high and there is no wind.
“In these conditions he can attack better than on other surfaces. But if he plays like this in the other surfaces he will still beat me. That is true.”
The world number two has been struggling with a shoulder injury of late and also felt ill during his victory over Mardy Fish on Sunday.
And while he wouldn’t blame the defeat on those problems, he did admit he had been unable to practise on Monday due to the shoulder injury.
“I woke up with the shoulder problem so I had to work to recover from that and I didn’t get a chance to practise,” he said.
“I didn’t know if I would be able to play today but it didn’t affect my match because I felt perfect.
“It won’t be the last time I lose a match like this. I will try my best to play against him another time in this tournament.”