PODCAST - 2022 Mutua Madrid Open Preview

The official ATP Tour Podcast presented by Seb Lauzier and including interviews and features with...FELICIANO LOPEZ ON MAKING HIS DEBUT IN MADRID 20 YEARS AGO - ‘2002 was an amazing event. Manolo Santana offered me a wildcard, I was a kid, 18 or 19 years old and I won two matches and then ended up playing Andre Agassi, who at that time was one of my idols. I played that match and I played great, pushing him to 7-5 in the third and then he went on to win the tournament'ALEJANDRO DAVIDOVICH FOKINA ON HIS RECENT FORM- ‘I don’t think I've showed what is my limit yet and I want to know more about me, what I have inside. I believe now I can win every tournament, my confidence now is so high, but we keep practicing now to see what are my limits and we will see what will happen this week'RAFAEL NADAL ON RETURNING FROM RIB INJURY - ‘Enjoying the fact that I’m back knowing that the situation is not perfect for me with one month and a half with the stress fracture on the rib that’s painful and that didn’t allow me to practice for a while, so in terms of preparation it’s not the ideal thing, but I am just here to try my best. It’s not easy to accept every time the challenge, but it’s just time to keep going, to stay positive and to find things to be better every day’.DOMINIC THIEM ON RETURNING FROM WRIST INJURY - ‘I’m pain free in all the body now which is very nice. Obviously game-wise there are many things which are not perfect, but that’s exactly what I expected and that’s why I have to practice everyday. Practice it’s going well, but matches are very different, you’re way more nervous and tight and with all the moving around, I’ve lost all this and I’ve been away for ten months and all the anticipation, reaction time, I have to get it back and that’s what I’m trying right now and the first short-term goal is to be in good shape for the French Open as I won’t be seeded there’.DANIIL MEDVEDEV ON HIS JOURNEY TO WORLD NUMBER ONE - ’To be honest when I started on the professional tour I couldn’t think that I would achieve what I’ve done, but I always had some self-belief that I could be a good player if I tried my best all the time and when you are 18 that’s sometimes what you miss and I try to work on this part of me and later in my career it turned out to be a good thing’.JUAN CARLOS FERRERO ON DEALING WITH PRESSURE - ‘I think you have to be born a little bit with that and it’s difficult to teach, because you can talk a lot about this, but I think someone has to have it inside them because in the end you have to go alone to the court and you have to go through these nerves that you have in difficult moments, so you have to go through it for sure’.