A few minutes after his victory over Italian Paolo Lorenzi, which allowed him to advance to the semifinals of the Argentina Open where he is defending the title, Rafael Nadal talked about the rigorous weather conditions that surrounded his match, with a temperature of 32 degrees but with a heat index above 40 at some point in the afternoon on the clay court of the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club.
"It would be good if something could be done. There should be a regulation to play with certain temperatures, because there are extreme conditions that are not suitable for practicing the sport, that are not good for the players or for the spectators," said the Spanish player, referring to a brief interruption that occurred during the tie-break of the first set, during which a member of the audience who felt unwell was attended to. "Until someone suffers something serious, there will be no remedy. But something should be done," he added.
Later, regarding his game, he explained: "The sensations were complicated on a difficult day, which was tough. But I'm in the semifinals, and a difficult situation in the first set was overcome. My feeling with the ball was good, but at one point I was very tired and that's when you start making more mistakes. As long as I was physically fine, the feeling was good, but the conditions didn't help. The humidity makes the game erratic."
"At times I'm fine, at times I make a mistake that I shouldn't. The climate and the physical part also affect. I've worked to have a good season, and I feel prepared, but obviously I have to be a little better and have better physical sensations for tomorrow's match," emphasized the defending champion.
Tomorrow, in the first semifinal, starting at 2 PM, Rafa will have a more complex opponent in Austrian Dominic Thiem, 19th in the world rankings: "He is a complete player, with a very good backhand, serve, and forehand, and good shots on clay courts. He is young, has something special, and I know that I will have to play at a high level to beat him; I have to dictate the course of the match and keep him away from the baseline." The other semifinal will be between Nicolas Almagro, who eliminated Tsonga, and the winner of the Ferrer-Cuevas match, which was suspended due to rain and will continue this Saturday from 12 noon.
jld/ph.