He works hard on the court. And at times he's quite lucky too..
Rafael Nadal was handed a walkover into the quartersfinals at the Madrid Masters yesterday when his third-round opponent Philipp Kohlschreiber was forced out of the claycourt event with a left leg injury.
Nadal is now bidding for a sixth title of the season and a fourth on clay.
Seriously, there's no better place to make it happen that at the Magic Box!
(Images by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Thanks to Astro for giving us the opportunity to participate in an email interview with French player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga recently.
Worried about Jo Willy's performance on clay, we came up with several questions regarding his preparation and readiness for the French Open, the Grand Slam he missed last year due to a knee injury.
Here are the questions:
Q1: After missing from Monte Carlo and Barcelona, you started your clay season rather late, in less than a month before Roland Garros. Why did you take so long to switch from hard court to clay?
JWT: The first part of the season was relatively long for me and I needed a good break, hence I took some time off and decided to train instead of playing Monte Carlo.
Q2: You withdrew from Barcelona due to precaution against your knee problem. Is your knee okay now?
JWT: All is well now. I felt something will training and due to my injury from last year and preferred not to take any risks.
Q3: You have an attacking game on hard court. So are you going to play it differently on clay?
JWT: I am not about to change my style of play, rather try to get more spin on the ball but altogether I will try to move forward and attack the ball.
Q4: Is clay the most difficult and your least favorite surface?
JWT: I’ve had good results on clay during my junior years and I enjoy playing on clay to the opposite of what many media can say.
Q5: You have won doubles titles partnering Gasquet and Gicquel before. So are you going to play in the men’s doubles at Roland Garros with one of them?
JWT: As of today, May 12, I do not know with whom I will play double at the French Open.
Q6: Do you think you can beat clay court specialist like Nadal and Djokovic?
JWT: I step on the court with the feeling that I can beat anyone so of course I believe in my chances.
Q7: You are featured in the EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis scheduled to be out in June. Are you excited to be included in this new game? Do you play video games with the other players?
JWT: It is a great honor for me to be featured on the cover of the game and to have my ‘double’ in the game. It was always something that was exciting for me to have my own video game. I used to play a lot with my brother and I look forward to playing against the virtual Tsonga.
As you all know, Richard Gasquet has been suspended after a positive cocaine test result and he will miss the French Open.
For Jo Willy's fans, he will be playing in the ARAG ATP World Team Championship teaming up with fellow compatriots Gilles Simon and Jeremy Chardy next week.
Astro SuperSports+ (channel 816) will be showing the tournament from Monday onwards (May 18) until the final match on May 23.
This additional channel will also air French Open 2009 from May 24 to June 7.
Check out the schedule here or log on to Astro website for more information.
For those who wants to catch these tournaments on live stream, there are always a few trusted sources, TennisTV.com and Atdhe.net.
(Image by Javier Soriano/AFP/Getty Images)
He works hard on the court. And at times he's quite lucky too..
Nadal is now bidding for a sixth title of the season and a fourth on clay.
