At the start of 2013, Rafael Nadal trained with his compatriot Tommy Robredo for a few days. Both the players were coming back from long injury setbacks and both were looking to regain their old form.

The weeks have passed. Both the players have featured in a lot of matches since then. Nadal managed to set the world on fire as he hit top form straightaway after his comeback, but, one cannot say the same thing for Robredo. He seemed to be struggling big time in the first few tournaments that he played after the comeback, but, the Spaniard has slowly started to get into his groove now. He got better of the Swiss maestro Roger Federer in the 4^th round of the US Open the other day and made it to the final 8 where he will be facing none other than Nadal.

Talking to the reporters ahead of that match, Nadal said, “I had trained with him for a few days back home in Barcelona. We both were making comebacks and I saw hunger in the eyes of Tommy. He was quite serious and passionate.”

“He didn’t start the season as well as he would have liked, but, I was pretty sure that he would start winning at some point of time in the season and he is doing that now. He is a fine player and he has worked very hard in the last few months.”

“If you are prepared to put in the hard work and battle your way through the tough periods, you are going to taste success at some point of time. Tommy has done that and he is having a great time now.”

Nadal has so far played 6 matches against Robredo and has won all of them.