Abu Dhabi: Rafael Nadal has a positive outlook despite defeat
Rafael Nadal has played his first match since the summer against Andy Murray. Despite the defeat, he takes positive signals with him.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Dec 18, 2021, 09:51 am
Recently, the term "comeback" was actually reserved for Andy Murray when he was on the field - even if he has been back on the ball since summer 2019 after his hip operation. Even if always with little ailments.
On Saturday afternoon, the comebacker was more like Rafael Nadal: The 20-time major champion had been out of action since the French Open, a short interlude in Washington was quickly interrupted, the ailing foot then even had to go under the knife again. Now Nadal is back, and even if it was 6: 3, 7: 5 for the Scot in the end , Nadal was satisfied with his performance.
"I think I did a lot of things right," said Nadal afterwards . Of course, after such a long time without match practice, you think more about decisions, often for too long, while the normal course of the tournament would happen automatically. "Generally it was a good match. I even had a chance of winning the second set." He played better than he thought possible a few weeks ago.
Nadal added that he did not play any of these matches during training in Mallorca, where exercises were the focus, more controlled tennis to slowly get the foot used to everything again.
Rafael Nadal: Today against Denis Shapovalov
The good thing for Nadal: He gets more match practice in Abu Dhabi, meets Denis Shapovalov in third place in the game at 2 p.m. CET (live in the stream on servustv.com; the final between Murray and Andrey Rublev takes place afterwards).
Apparently, Nadal has already left a lasting impression on Shapovalov: According to the Canadian, Nadal "killed" him during the joint training session. "So I think he's feeling pretty good." It remains to be seen whether Nadal can bring the "killer mode" into the match today.