Nadal laments lack of young Spanish players

Spain's Rafael Nadal (2), after defeating Australia's Alex De Minaur (27) in the third round of the Australian Open here, said that tennis has skipped a few generations in Spain and it is probable that it will not be so successful in the coming years. After his 250th Grand Slam win on Friday, Nadal said: "It is true that we are a country with the most number of players in the third round but it is not less true that none of us is really young."

He further added that it is logical that people stop appreciating the achievements of tennis players, because after experiencing such a good era, these achievements stop being big news. "25 years ago, when a Spaniard would reach the quarter finals of a Grand Slam,it would be big news, but today, it's not because we have achieved it so many times," he added.

The former World number 1 said that tennis fans would appreciate all the achievements of the current golden era of the national tennis and added that Spain has only Jaume Munar as a young revelation in the first hundred players of the ATP rankings. "There is Jaume, and that's it, if I am not wrong, because the next among the young players would be Pablo. There is a series of generations that does not exist," Nadal said.