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Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal, Tennis News

‘Rafael Nadal doesn’t want to play – Novak Djokovic does,’ says tournament director


Rafael Nadal is highly unlikely to sign up to play in Vienna later this month despite the best efforts, tournament director Herwig Straka has said.

Straka pulled off a real coup when he persuaded Novak Djokovic to play for the first time since 2007, with the Serbian chasing the bonus ranking points that will secure him the year-end world number one spot.

He had hoped that Nadal could also be enticed to Austria, but he has all but given up on that now.

“I spoke to Rafael Nadal once this week and I don’t think he will come,” Straka told Der Standard.

“It wasn’t a financial issue with Novak Djokovic. The agreement was there quickly, Novak just wanted to play,”

“This would also be the case with Rafael Nadal if he wanted to play.

“[Djokovic wanting the ranking points] was always my speculation, thank God it worked.

“He can make 500 free points, so he will definitely be fully motivated.”

Djokovic has however, apparently come with a list of requests, but Straka says he is more than happy to satisfy them.

“Djokovic doesn’t come until the end of the week and has some other requirements.

“So that he can perform perfectly, he has an environment around him, from food to fitness, things that we have to meet, but that’s okay.”


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Michael Graham, Tennishead.net Editor, has been a professional sports journalist for his whole career and is especially passionate about tennis. He's been the Editor of Tennishead.net for over 5 years and loves watching live tennis by visiting as many tournaments as possible. Michael specialises in writing in-depth features about the ATP & WTA tours.