Nadal, out of Australian Open, disagrees with Djokovic

Rafael Nadal suffered a shock defeat to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Australian Open quarter-finals after holding a two-set lead.

But he doesn’t agree with Novak Djokovic’s assessment that the 2021 season should be cancelled if players will need to continually enter quarantine before a tournament.

Nadal looked on course for a potential clash with Djokovic in the Australian Open final, having breezed through to the quarter-finals without dropping a set.

And he was in top form early on against Stefanos Tsitsipas, quickly taking a two-set lead.

But Tsitsipas quickly stepped up another gear while mistakes began to creep into Nadal’s game.

The 22-year-old capitalised and took his chances when it mattered most to pull off one of the most remarkable comebacks in modern Grand Slam history.

It brings an end to Nadal’s search for that elusive second Australian Open title for another year in what has proved to be a controversial tournament among the players.

They were forced to quarantine in the weeks building up to the Australian Open with some players being unable to leave their hotel rooms.

Djokovic, speaking after his quarter-final win over Alexander Zverev, called for an urgent review of the conditions looking ahead for the remainder of the season.

And the world No 1 even claimed that players would be against competing should the quarantine restrictions from Melbourne be copied at other tournaments over the world.

Nadal though doesn’t see the benefit of doing that, hinting that protecting players’ ranking positions could be a way forward.

When asked for his opinion on Djokovic’s view, Nadal said: “Honestly, this was the first event that we had to do this quarantine.

“We didn’t have events before that with this quarantine.

“I mean, we had maybe it was New York but was not the same at all. I mean, the situation that we are facing is tough, and the world is facing a very tough situation.

“That’s very clear. And he’s completely right that, for our sport, things are difficult because governments are changing the rules constantly.

“So it’s difficult to make predictions about how the things gonna happen.

“But there is a very clear thing, you know. There is two options. Two options is stop the tour or keep going.

“My personal feeling is it’s tough for the players, of course, have to do bubbles in every single event, flying just plus two, a lot of players have family and they cannot have the family with them, so that makes our tour probably tougher than ever, no?

“But in the other hand, if we stop the tour, why and how and when we will be able to come back, and a lot of jobs gonna suffer a lot.

“I mean, not only players. A lot of people are living for our sport, no? If we stop our sport again, a lot of people are going to suffer, no?

“So we need to have a little bit more – I mean, we need to think a little bit bigger, no? And of course we need to protect players.

“Probably we need to find a way to protect the players with the ranking, to not force them to keep playing, yes, 100%, because the situation is very tough for a lot of players depending on the countries.

“But that’s it. We need to find solutions and we need to adapt to this very tough times that we are facing.

“Not only us; world. We are here to find solutions. I mean, and we need to be grateful to life that we can keep doing what we are doing.”

– express.co.uk