After having fought against one of the most imposing players in history, Pedro Cachindefeated by Rafael Nadal in it Madrid Masters 1000 6-1, 6-7 (5) and 6-3, he told his rival that “a dream came true.” Without wasting the unique opportunity, she dared to ask him if he could take some souvenir from her. The Spaniard granted his wish by giving him one of her t-shirts, and the man from Córdoba commented in a press conference that he plans to hang it next to a photo from the match.
“I told him what I always wanted to tell him and I thanked him that I fulfilled a dream of a boy who in 2005 watched him win Roland Garros from bed on a Sunday and today I had to face him,” Cachin highlighted.
Then he told what he plans to do with his souvenir: “I thank him very much for the gesture and the truth is that he seems like a great person to me. I’ll try to get him to sign my shirt at some point and I’ll hang it up with a photo of the game.“.
Speaking about how he felt during the day, the Cordoba player analyzes: “It was a very disputed match. At the beginning, of course, I entered with more fear than I imagined. You can imagine many things, but Rafa has a work that transcends and makes you feel it. At least for a while I was able to get out of that fear and compete,” he stated.
“When I threw the first ball for the serve I already threw it very badly and In that game I think I served ten times and didn’t make any serves.“, he lamented, but despite the setbacks at the beginning, he did not give up and got ready to get up for the remainder of the match.
Already at the end of the second set he felt “different” and was able to compete and “enjoy it a lot,” he added. He even thought he could win the game..
Fighting against the irregular weather and the fatigue that his body was accumulating, Cachín related that it was in those moments that he saw the true end of the battle. “Luckily it wasn’t 6-1 and 6-0, which easily could have been that way because of how it started. But I competed on an equal footing with the best athlete they have here in Spain.“.
Cachín pointed out that his time at the Madrid tournament has helped him “a lot emotionally” and that he leaves “very happy with this tournament, I cut a difficult streak for me and especially emotionallythat I changed a lot,” he highlighted.
