Rafael Nadal's Wimbledon practice showed three things ahead of Taylor Fritz rematch
Rafael Nadal was back in action at Wimbledon as he hit one of the outside courts for a practice session on Tuesday afternoon, ahead of his quarter-final against Taylor Fritz tomorrow. The Spaniard was locked in and spent an hour hitting with new coach and former pro Marc Lopez.
Nadal opted not to practice at Aorangi Park on Tuesday, instead wanting to get time in on one of Wimbledon's smaller playing courts. The second seed is back in a Wimbledon quarter-final after three years without playing on the grass, and doesn't appear to be any changes ahead of his grudge match with Taylor Fritz.
The Spaniard will face the 11th seed for the first time since losing to him in this year's Indian Wells final, and is already well aware that this could be his chance to get revenge after cracking a joke about the defeat following his fourth round win on Monday. "He's playing well, he's having [an] amazing year winning first Masters 1000 - against me by the way in the final," he said in his on-court interview, earning laughs from the crowd.
And Nadal was locked in during his hit on Court 16, as he arrived to a packed crowd of and who had caught word of the 22-time Grand Slam champion's choice of venue for today's session. The 36-year-old smiled as he sat at his bench on court to prepare but quickly turned on his laser focus as he practised his ground strokes.
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The two-time champion at the All England Club clearly feels he can make a lot more improvements going into his last-eight match as he appeared irritated at times when he would send the ball long or dump it into the net. And it appears he believes one of the keys to his match against Fritz will be his forehand