Nadal hurt-les out of oz Open
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Jan. 26: Rafael Nadal’s bid to win four straight Grand Slam tournaments is over. An injury-affected Nadal lost for the second straight year in the Australian Open quarterfinals, crashed out in straight sets on Wednesday, losing 4-6, 2-6, 3-6 to fellow Spaniard David Ferrer.
Nadal, who appeared to have tears in his eyes during a changeover while trailing 0-3 in the third set, took a medical timeout for an apparent leg injury after three games and was clearly out of sorts, failing to chase down balls that he would ordinarily return easily. “This is a difficult day for me,” Nadal said, adding that he preferred to not talk about the nature of the injury.
“Today I can’t do more than what I did, he played at a very high level.” When pressed about the injury, Nadal added: “I don’t have to tell you what I felt on the court, but it is obvious I did not feel at my best. I had a problem with the match at the very beginning, and after that, the match was almost over.”
It was the second year in a row he lost in the quarterfinals here due to injury — in 2010 he retired against Andy Murray due to a right knee ailment that kept him off the tour for two months, again on the Australia Day national holiday.
Nadal, who didn’t bother chasing the winner on match point, won last year’s French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open and was trying to add the Australian title so he could hold all four major trophies at once. That hasn’t been achieved since Rod Laver won four in a row in 1969.
The crowd cheered almost exclusively for Nadal — “Come on, Rafa,” — they roared, while often applauding Ferrer’s errors. All, eventually, for nothing.
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