Tennis legend Rafael Nadal has admitted that his 6-4, 6-4 loss against Germany’s Alexander Zverev is a step back but it is also a positive before the French Open. Nadal was beaten in quarterfinals by the German and he knows that he needs to pull up his socks. This was Zverev’s maiden win against Nadal on clay and this must have added a lot of confidence to his arm.

The Spaniard is known to bounce back in his career and he has done the same, time and again in his glorious career. In fact, Nadal was also beaten by Russia’s Andrey Rublev in the quarterfinals of Monte-Carlo masters, which was also a clay court event.

Nadal has an impeccable record on clay and it is not often that he loses on his favourite court. Furthermore, Nadal had saved a championship point against Stefanos Tsitsipas before he won his 12th Barcelona Open title.

“I took steps forward, but when you go up a staircase, there are times when it happens that you take a step back, that’s what happened today,” said five-time Madrid champion Nadal.

“It’s a week where there were a lot of positive things. I’m leaving Madrid with good feelings in general, and the bad one having played a match like today.

“Now, what is the goal before Roland Garros? Go to Rome (for next week’s Italian Open) and win, that’s all.”

Meanwhile, Nadal had lost in the quarterfinals of Italian Open against Argentine Diego Schwartzman in 2020 and he will look to go all the way in this edition.

Nadal will be gunning for his 14th French Open title, which will also help his leapfrog Roger Federer’s tally of 20 slam titles.