Rafael Nadal offers no excuses for loss to Diego Schwartzman

Sep 21, 2020 06:00 am

Rafael Nadal refused to make excuses for his shock defeat by Diego Schwartzman in the Italian Open quarter-finals, insisting that his focus is now on fine-tuning his game ahead of the French Open.

The nine-time Rome champion looked well off the pace in his 6-2, 7-5 loss to the 15th-ranked Argentine, an opponent he had defeated nine straight times heading into yesterday's encounter in the Italian capital.

"We can find excuses, but I didn't play well enough. Then we have to think internally, 'Why? How I can fix it?'" said the 34-year-old Spaniard.

"Now is not the moment to find excuses. It's just to accept that I didn't play well enough."

Meanwhile, in the first women's semi-final yesterday, Simona Halep beat Garbine Muguruza 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 while the first men's semi-final saw Novak Djokovic beat Casper Ruud 7-5, 6-3. - REUTERS