"Nadal didn't give me any space, I felt that a lion was coming" - Cerundolo recalls Wimbledon walk out
ATPWednesday, 03 August 2022 at 09:00
Updated at Monday, 20 January 2025 at 16:33
Francisco Cerundolo got a chance to play against Rafael Nadal at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships, and he now reflected on the experience.
Cerundolo is one of the younger players on the ATP Tour, and before meeting Nadal at SW19, he had never faced any of the Big Three players (Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer) before.
His first experience wasn't the worst, as the second-seeded Spaniard beat him 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the first round of the 2022 Wimbledon Championships.
Although he lost the match, he won a set at the Centre Court against Nadal, something not many players can say. Now, more than a month later, the Argentinian reflected on the experience in an interview with La Nacion.
Cerundolo revealed that he learned about playing Nadal on Twitter. He admitted that since learning the draw, he couldn't wait to walk onto the court.
"It was a nice tournament, there were no points, what better than that. We started to warm up and at one point I grabbed my cell phone, went on Twitter and boom! I see Cerundolo-Nadal."
"I said: 'Well, Rafa touched me'. In those days, from the draw on Friday to the game on Tuesday, I was eager to get on the court and play."
Despite being initially excited, Cerundolo admitted that he soon started feeling nervous, especially since Nadal entered the joined corridor.
"Half an hour before the game I started to feel nervous. And since I walked from the locker room to the court, passing through the internal corridors, I felt that Rafa was walking [behind me], that he was sighing in my ear. I felt that a lion was coming."
"We were a few meters from the entrance, I psyched myself up and said: 'I'm going in to kill or I'm going to have a very bad time'. Since I stepped on the grass, I thought: 'Look where I am. I went into party mode and my nerves went away. If I [hadn't done] that, I would've lost 6-1, 6-1, 6-1."
Cerundolo also admitted that when they were walking through the hallways, he felt like Nadal was right on his heels, which made him even more nervous.
"You enter the locker room and the first locker is his. So every time you walk in, you see it. Later, when we were outside the locker room waiting for the security to take us to the court, I walked first and he followed, but he did, I swear…, on my heels. [Nadal] didn't give me any space. It's terrible."
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