Rafael Nadal isn’t confident about World Tour Finals after suffering Paris Masters defeat to Alexander Zverev in straight sets. (1:34)
PARIS — Rafael Nadal has been a world-beater for over a decade. He’s won 10 Grand Slam titles, 14 ATP Masters Series titles, and his 23 Grand Slam titles make his win total the fourth highest in history.
He’s gone to 30 finals and won six of them. And, like his fellow five-time winner Roger Federer, Nadal has often been at his best over the course of a five-hour match.
That said, the Madrid native doesn’t see too much of a chance to continue his historic run at the 2017-18 season’s World Tour Finals.
Nadal, the man who beat Roger Federer to win last year’s event, lost 6-2 in the semifinals on Saturday, his first time to lose a semifinal at the event since 2007. After the match, Nadal sounded pessimistic, pointing to a lack of motivation and his fatigue.
“I’m disappointed,” Nadal said Tuesday after losing to Zverev, whom he defeated for a spot at the finals for the first time. “Because in the end, I had the chance to take the French Open.”
Nadal said he felt the pressure to go through, he would need to win — and he failed to do so.
“I feel like, in the end, it doesn’t matter what happens, but it’s still a disappointing result for me. Because when you have the good matches, it’s very difficult. And the bad points are not good points, they are bad matches.”
Nadal is the No. 6 seed at the tournament, which is to help him prepare for the French Open, and he will need to win there. If he does not do so, he will need to come through the finals against Zverev to make the final four.
Nadal is seeded second in the French Open, and he has gone through the first-round draw before, advancing all the way to the quarter