Spaniard Rafael Nadal shrugged off the final defeat by Roger
Federer at the ATP Masters Series event in Hamburg last week as
Roland Garros gets underway on Sunday.
"For confidence it is important to win a Masters Series and the
confidence for Roger (Federer) is gonna be good here at Roland
Garros," said the Majorcan on Friday. "But the confidence for me is
very, very good too. I won Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Rome and
(entered) final in Hamburg.
"My preparation is very good, and I have a lot of matches of
experience, a lot of confidence and with tournament like this, it
is important to arrive with the best confidence.
Nadal's 81-winning-streak on clay was snipped by Federer at the
Hamburg final but the 20-year-old still has momentum on his side as
the two-time French Open winner is itching to notch up hat trick at
the second major of the year.
Only legendary Bjorn Borg has achieved this feat and went on to
win his fourth Roland Garros title in a row stretching from 1978 to
1981. The Swede won six French Open titles in total.
"I'm still happy with the result as the 81-match winning streak
on clay was unbelievable. It was nice to lose against the No. 1 in
a final of the Masters Series. So it's good finish for the
unbelievable record.
"I will start another one," he added.
The second seed had some bad fortunes as he on Friday was drawn
into the same quarter alongside his major nemeses including America
's eighth seed James Blake, 10th-seeded Tomas Berdych from the
Czech Republic and Australia's 14th seed Lleyton Hewitt.
(Xinhua News Agency May 26, 2007)