CAMELOT FANTASIES

Nole’s take on Rafa’s Confidence crisis

Novak Djokovic about Rafa, in his press conference at the Miami Open:

Q. Yesterday Rafa, who's always very honest and forthright, was telling us that he actually feels some self doubt for the first time in his career. That he gets nervous on points and anxious, and it's something he's never experienced before. Have you ever had moments like that during matches or any stretch of your career? How did you get through that?

NOVAK DJOKOVIC: Of course. More or less every single match you go through these moments. I mean, we are all humans and we all go through certain emotional ups and downs. Depending on the, I'd say quality and intensity of the match, that's how your emotions kind of wave during the play. Of course I understand what he's talking about because I'm playing for many years on this high level and I know how much pressure and expectations you have.

So I respect what he has achieved in his career so far very much because I understand what it takes to be there and what it takes achieve as much as he did. He has so much experience and so much success for only 28 years. I'm sure he wants to play for many more years. It's normal to have some periods of crisis, if you want to call it that, where you sometimes feel more doubt than confidence in important moments and you lose a couple of matches.

But it's Nadal that we are talking about, the player that's won 14 Grand Slams and he's one of the best players in the history of the game.
I'm sure that he's somebody that knows exactly how to deal with this particular situation and how to get better.