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World No. 10 Ons Jabeur joked that she doesn't have tickets for the Champions League match between Real Madrid and Manchester City, but she knows a guy who could help her: Rafael Nadal. Nadal, a great football fan and Real Madrid fan, was at the Santiago Bernabéu on Saturday for the Real Madrid-Espanyol match.
Real Madrid beat Espanyol 4-0 and secured the Spanish League title. On Wednesday night, Real Madrid faced Manchester City in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final. Jabeur joked that if Nadal gets her, her husband and her coach tickets, they will cheer for Real Madrid.
"I don't have tickets or anything, but I know a good person called Rafael Nadal who has access," Jabeur said jokingly, as quoted by Sportskeeda. "I'm just going to put it out there: Rafa, if you need a companion or two or three -because my coach and my husband want to go- you can ask them to put us at the same time and so we can go together to support Real Madrid against Man City.
They need me, come on. Go Madrid!" On Monday, Jabeur edged out Belinda Bencic in straight sets to reach the Madrid quarterfinals. Jabeur will not have an easy job in the Madrid quarterfinals, as she faces Simona Halep, who has not dropped a set so far in Madrid.
Rafa Nadal is a tennis legend
ATP strategy coach Craig O'Shannessy recently explained why Rafael Nadal's results at Wimbledon were not up to the mark. According to O'Shannessy, the Spaniard is too passive when playing on grass, a surface that requires a more aggressive playing style.
"You got Rosol that beat [Rafael Nadal]. You got Darcis that beat him. You got Dustin that beat him. I think overall, when Rafa will sit down and look at those matches, [he'll see that] players came at him," O'Shannessy said. "Players attacked him, they went after him and he didn't go after them enough.
I think he was too passive. I think he didn't come to the net enough." O'Shannessy noted how Dustin Brown neutralized the 21-time Grand Slam champion's sliced serve by positioning himself in a way that put him on the front foot from the get-go.
"[Rafael Nadal] loves the slice serve down the T. So Dustin, instead of putting his left foot on the singles line, puts his right foot. So the slice now is coming forward at him. I studied Rafa so much, he hits everything so meticulously," O'Shannessy said.
"I know what he is going to do. He does the same things, so I showed it to Dustin. He absorbed it, and he went out there ultra confident."