Rafa Nadal returns with victory

Rafael Nadal returned to the competition after eleven and a half months of absence from the courts due to injury with a convincing victory against the Austrian Dominic Thiem in the Brisbane tournament, 7-5 and 6-1.

The winner of twenty-two Grand Slams, a guest of the event, took an hour and a half to carry out his first match after a long recovery.

In the second round he will play against the winner of the match between the Russian Aslan Karatsev, eighth seed, and the Australian guest Jason Kubler.

For many moments, it did not feel like time had passed for the 37-year-old player from Manacor, who with the necessary prudence warned at the time that 2024 could be the last of his successful career.

It did not seem that the best Spanish athlete ever had gone 349 days without playing an individual match on a tennis court.

Nadal’s victory 7-5 and 6-1

He carried out the match with authority and with a wonderful game. Overwhelming. By 7-5 and 6-1 after an hour and a half on the Pat Rafter Arena court at the Queensland Tennis Centre, which welcomed the Spanish player’s new performance with enthusiasm, affection and some expectation.

Nadal has nothing to prove at this point, who boasts one of the best careers in the history of this sport and who has long assumed a new reality, distant from great aspirations, from challenges that he has already achieved. At 37 years old, twenty-two Grand Slam, he enjoyed the new and good sensations of it. He competed again and won again.

“It is a very exciting day for me because of everything I have been through. I feel very happy. Everything has gone well. There have been many things. I’m grateful for everything,” she said of the track.

Rafa Nadal returns as always

Rafael Nadal returned as always. He left behind, cornered, that bad moment of the second half of January last year when he lost an Australian Open match that ended badly against the American Mackenzie MCDonald.

He ended up damaged, injured in the iliopsoas of his left leg. There was nothing to suggest that he would not step on the court again in all of 2023 and that in each interview he would receive more questions about his retirement than about his objectives.

The wait has been long. He has been able to curb Nadal’s anxiety, which he expressed on the court, in the return of him, encouraging feelings and a great game. Especially on the serve, which he did not give up at any time, where he left few points. That he was never threatened.

A relentless clash

The clash was a serious face to face, without respite, against a reputable, prestigious opponent. In his day considered one of the great emergences of tennis. Called to inherit the dominance of the ‘Big Three’, with a Grand Slam title, the 2020 US Open on his resume and three other lost finals.

An old acquaintance for Nadal, this 30-year-old Viennese who became the third best tennis player in the world and who is now depressed, sunk, beyond 90. The one in Brisbane was the sixteenth face-to-face between the two. The Balearic Islands had won nine but the last two, the most recent, went to Thiem.

The Austrian maintained his position as long as the serve did not turn his back. The equality lasted during the first eleven games where there were almost no movements. Everything sped up afterwards. In the eleventh. Nadal had for the first time, with his side at 6-5, the possibility of breaking his rival’s serve.

The Spaniard had already accelerated. He had already raised his fist in more than one action in which he proved to be agile, quick on his legs, forceful and accurate. He only lacked precision in the rest, the great supporter of him. And he arrived at that moment.

Nadal did not take advantage of the first set point as he crashed the ball into the net. Neither was the second that Thiem saved with a good serve that had a difficult return and that he carried forward with a wonderful subsequent shot.

The Austrian committed a double fault and led to the third set point for the Spaniard who escaped with another great serve. But on the fourth Nadal did not fail. In a ‘passing’ after an exchange. He did not forgive the Spaniard who scored his goal after 56 minutes of play.

Everything was easier later because Thiem eased up. He did not overcome the blow while Nadal grew. He stood at 3-0. The rest came by itself. It was about time. He closed it with authority. He scored the victory, the first after his return. After an hour and a half of play. Nadal returned, he returned with triumph.

Rafa Nadal: “It has only been a good start”

Rafa Nadal exercised caution despite the good feelings shown in his first round match of the Brisbane tournament.

“It’s just been a good start. It is true that after so much time, after a year, I have played very well and above all with everything that has happened and the circumstances in which I have arrived here,” recalled the winner of twenty-two Grand Slams, who admitted having felt “very positive” feelings.

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