Rattled Nadal backtracks as Federer stays cool

TENNIS:RAFAEL NADAL thinks he talks too much. Maybe he's right. After exciting the media on Sunday night by accusing Roger Federer of protecting his image as "a gentleman" who refuses to back players in the fight to ease their punishing schedule, Nadal last night backtracked as if hunting down a top-spin lob on match point.

Federer, he had told Spanish journalists, finished each year “fresh as a daisy”, which was beyond players who did not possess his languid skills. It was all right for him, but those who relied on a physical game ended up “burned” out, he said.

And it was always left to him to carry the argument.

There was wild talk on Twitter of a strike at the French Open, quickly denied, but the Swiss player seemed to be isolated. He was painted as aloof and uncaring. One strong rumour suggested he was the only player to hold out against a strong consensus for change.

This was sensational stuff, the two leading players of their generation wrecking the carefully nurtured illusion that their rivalry was fierce but not personal. All the fine words of the past decade were turning to dust. It was as if Nadal’s frustration with the eloquent and elegant Federer had reached their limit of diplomacy. Headlines across the world blazed with the row.

Last night, Nadal, clearly rattled, made an equally ham-fisted job of rewriting the story. “I always had fantastic relationship with Roger,” he said. “I still have fantastic relationship with Roger. That’s what should be, in my opinion. Don’t create crazy histories about what I said yesterday, please. Probably I am wrong telling that to you, especially because these things can stay, must stay in the locker room.”

The “histories”, as he called his remarks, were his own creation, though. There was no embellishment and he has not complained he had been misquoted. However, coming off court after beating the US qualifier Alex Kuznetsov 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 in the first round of the 2012 Australian Open, he hardly knew where to turn.

He denied he had spoken to Federer (a claim the Swiss later contradicted) and then offered up another story that he might have imagined would deflect attention from his embarrassment, what he called “the more strange thing ever happen to me”.

He explained: “I don’t want to create mystery or nothing. I had a fantastic week of practice with nothing of pain, no one bad feeling on the knee and no one place on my body. But yesterday afternoon . . . I was sitting on a chair in the hotel. I felt like a crack on the knee. I stand up. I felt the knee a little bit strange. I moved the leg like this two times to try to find the feeling. After the second time, the knee stays with an unbelievable pain completely straight. I really couldn’t move the knee.”

That night he did not think he would be able to continue in the tournament. He had tests, ultrasound, physiotherapy and an MRI scan. It is likely it was a pinched tendon, he said. He was nervous at the start of his match but began to play normally after 10 games. He is confident the crisis has passed.

The greater concern, probably, was how Federer would react to his provocative statement the night before. He need not have worried. The silkiest communicator in the business dispatched his first-round opponent, Alex Kudryavtsev of Russia 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 without incident and calmly addressed his inquisitors.

“I kind of heard it,” he said. “I saw him Sunday afternoon. I didn’t know he spoke to the press. He said: ‘Yeah, it was fine.’ Mentioned a few things here and there. I was, okay, whatever. Then I read the comments. So, things are fine between us. I have no hard feelings towards him. I’m completely cool and relaxed about it. He seemed the same way – or at least I hope so.

“We can’t always agree on everything. Back in the day he used to say: ‘Whatever Roger decides, I’m fine with.’ Today he’s much more grown up. He has a strong opinion himself, which I think is great. It’s what we need, especially on the council. It’s been nice working with him.”

Ultimately, Nadal seems more unsettled by the incident than Federer. The Spaniard ended with a plaintive farewell to the same journalists he had earlier confided in: “I do not talk any more. During the two weeks, you can try very hard to asking me a lot of things. Yesterday, you know, I started, and I say I don’t want to talk any more about this. Finally I talked too much – as usual. That’s not gonna happen again. You can try hard, but I gonna talk about tennis. If I am here two weeks, if I am here two days. You are only interested in that, not the tennis.”

Meanwhile, world number one Caroline Wozniacki dispelled any lingering doubt about her wrist injury defeating Anastasia Rodionova 6-2, 6-1 in an hour and 16 minutes.

GuardianService