6 Feb 2014

Melbourne final Nadal's worst

6:38 am on 6 February 2014

The world tennis number one Rafael Nadal says the Australian Open final, which he lost to Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka last month, is the worst hour and a half he's ever spent on a tennis court.

The 27-year-old Spaniard and 13-time Grand Slam champion says he hasn't got over his Melbourne performance.

Nadal suffered a back injury in the match and says while he knew he had no chance of winning he had no intention of retiring from the match.

He was seeking to become the first man in the Open Era to win each of tennis' four biggest titles at least twice.

Nadal says it has been harder to recover from this loss than other defeats.

He says he usually takes losses well and dwells on them for only a few hours but the Melbourne final has taken longer to get over.