Bring on the clay, says Nadal

Although defeated for the championship, the 30-year-old lefthander won a huge measure of self-belief, having reached his first Grand Slam final since his 2014 French Open victory. The tournament was a major test of his fitness after a wrist injury wrecked his 2016 season and the signs were good, said Nadal, who will bid to extend his record haul at Roland Garros to 10 titles in May.

“I cannot predict what’s going on in the future,” mused the Mallorcan, who was seeded ninth at Melbourne Park.I just think that I am playing well. “I believe that playing like this, good things can happen. (They) can happen here on this surface, but especially can happen on clay. “On clay I (can) recover better than here, then the opponents don’t get that many free points, and I am playing from the solid baseline. “If I made that happen, I think I can keep having success in hard courts, but on clay can be special.”

Novak Djokovic was conveniently eliminated from his Nadal’s half of the draw early in the tournament, but the Spaniard still had to negotiate a perilous run to the final. He had to weather five-set marathons against German wunderkind Alexander Zverev in the third round and rising Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the semi-finals. But he admitted that he was feeling the pinch when taken into the fifth set by Federer, who won his 18th Grand Slam title. 

“I won against the best players of the world, and I competed well against everybody. That’s the most important thing for me, and that gives me confidence to keep playing, and that’s what I am going to try.”