Coach Ivan Lendl stated that great champions like Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray can never be underestimated as they all share one thing in common: incredible determination. Nadal, 35, admitted that his foot problem got so bad that there was a period when he wasn’t even sure he could play in Australia.
In the end, Nadal made the decision to travel to Australia and the rest is history. In Australia, Nadal went 11-0 by winning back-to-back titles at the Melbourne Summer Set and the Australian Open. Lendl, who was recently reunited with Murray, was asked if Murray would be able to compete for major titles again.
“You ask with a face of circumstances after what Rafa [Nadal] has done in Australia,” Lendl said, according to Eurosport. “All these guys have incredible determination. They’re like bulldogs and they want to do things because they haven’t been done before.
If they put their minds to it, they can achieve incredible things. Rafa said he wasn’t even sure he could play again, and then he goes and win the Australian Open, so yeah, these guys can do it.” Murray, a three-time Grand Slam winner, plans to skip the entire clay-court season and focus on preparing for the grass-court season.
Murray has been successful on grass throughout his career, as he is a five-time Queen’s champion and also has two Wimbledon titles in his collection.
Rafa Nadal will miss the Montecarlo Masters
In a recent interview with Eurosport, Mats Wilander said he never felt that injuries would shorten Rafael Nadal’s career, contrary to what most experts believed.
“Rafa Nadal loves tennis and competing so much that when he’s feeling good he’s going to go out there and he’s going to run as hard as he can. People are saying Rafa Nadal will not last a long time because of injuries, I’ve always said kind of the opposite,” said Wilander.
“Rafa Nadal will last until he gets injured and then he will go home and he will do rehab and then he will play again and he will push himself so hard physically and mentally and emotionally that he will get injured again and then he will go home, he will rehab and he will start again,” added the 57-year-old.
The Australian Open marks the first major tournament in the calendar year for both the ATP and the WTA circuits. This time, the winners of the men’s singles and the women’s singles titles, Rafael Nadal and Ashleigh Barty created history at the tournament.