Rafael Nadal at his (talking) best

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It was a conspiracy Saturday night. The early Sunday newspaper deadline combined with Rafael Nadal electing to wait to speak about his upset semifinal loss Saturday to Ivan Ljubicic 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (1) (Nadal did win the doubles title with Spanish countryman Marc Lopez) meant no quotes from Nadal in Sunday’s newspaper story.

And he was quite quotable. So here’s a selection of Nadal’s assessments of his singles loss (and a little on his doubles title).

On his poor tiebreak:

‘I wasn’t passive,’ Nadal said. ‘I was more nervous than passive. Because I never had to arrive to this tiebreak. That’s my feeling, no?’

Or, actually, yes. Nadal was saying he should have won the match before a third-set tiebreak came into play.

On his tournament in general and then the sudden loss to Ljubicic:

‘It was tough for me to be in that situation because I was playing amazing all the week, playing really, really good. ... But today I played bad. I played bad match. ... I played unbelievable terrible game the first of the third set with my serve. I had more mistakes with my forehand in that game than all week. ...That’s tennis. I played bad.’

And more about what happened against Ljubicic. Was it more of a mental letdown?

‘The mental thing I’m going to do it well. ...That was an accident today. That’s my feeling because I was playing enough well to win the tournament. It was an important accident, and I have to learn to try to play more aggresive next time. ... I am happy how I did. ...I was feeling I was playing better than probably closer to ever on this court.’

-- Diane Pucin