Nadal gunning for Miami Open title

Four-time runner-up Rafael Nadal says wants to give himself every opportunity to win the Miami Open, one of the biggest titles to elude him in his illustrious career.

The world No. 7, who has said he was working day-in and day-out to give himself a chance at every tournament, noted that the Miami event was a title he had come tantalisingly close to capturing in the past.

“I’m coming here with good feelings and I hope to give myself another chance,” Nadal said at a press conference.

After a remarkable debut at South Florida’s biggest tennis event in 2004, when he stunned then-world No. 1 Roger Federer in the third round in their first-ever match, Nadal fell just short in the 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2014 finals.

In 2005, Nadal led Federer two sets to love before losing in five sets, while in 2011 the Spaniard fell to Serbia’s Novak Djokovic in a third-set tiebreaker.

In this year’s tournament, the two players who have accounted for eight of the last 10 Miami Open men’s singles titles – Djokovic and Scottish world No. 1 Andy Murray – are absent due to right elbow injuries.

But Nadal, widely regarded as the greatest clay-court player of all time, said there were many other players who were capable of beating him at this hard-court ATP World Tour 1000 event.

One of those potential opponents is two-time champion Federer, who has returned to the ATP Tour with a vengeance after missing the end of last season with a knee injury.

Federer edged Nadal in five sets in the Australian Open final and then trounced his long-time rival 6-2, 6-3 last week at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, en route to winning that hard-court event for the fifth time.

The fifth-seeded Nadal will start his quest for his maiden Miami title later this week in a second-round match against Israeli Dudi Sela or a qualifier.

The Spaniard is on the same side of the draw as second-seeded Japanese Kei Nishikori and third-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic, while joining Federer in the top half of the draw is his Swiss countryman and Indian Wells finalist Stan Wawrinka and Australian star Nick Kyrgios.