Second chapter of Rafa Nadal’s comeback. After his convincing victory on Tuesday against Dominic Thiem (7-5, 6-1), the Balearic player is looking for this Thursday (not before 09:30 Spanish peninsular time) his place in the quarterfinals of the Brisbane tournament against Jason Kubler.
The 30-year-old Australian, who benefited in the first round from the withdrawal of Aslan Karatsev, only after leveling the match at one set (7-6, 4-6), He is an expert doubles player with no individual titles who last season experienced both sides of the coin.
After touching the sky in January, winning the Australian Open title with his compatriot Rinky Hijikata, he experienced a period of disappointment. which ended with an injury that forced him to leave the racket at the end of August..
His withdrawal in the first round of the last US Open gave way long vacation of more than four months who, like Nadal, finished in Brisbane.
This will be the first match between the two, something that does not benefit Nadalwho took advantage of the intimate knowledge he had of Dominic Thiem’s tennis in his return match.
In any case This is a great opportunity to continue the competitive trend. and recovering lost sensations before the highlight of this season’s start, the Australian Open which starts in Melbourne on January 14.
“This is a good start. It’s true that after so long, after a year, I played very well and especially with everything that happened and the circumstances in which I got here,” recalled the winner of 22 Grand Slams, who admitted to feeling “very positive” after his return.
“I have a good day. I played very solid, almost never made a mistake. “I didn’t make any bad decisions,” he said.
Nadal does not set short-term goals. Just competition. “If I’m competitive again, great. It will also be a surprise. That’s my only goal, to be competitive for a few months. You have to go every day“, hinted Nadal. “It’s just a match.”
The Spanish tennis player emphasized that the match against Thiem was “very positive but we will see next time”. “If I can train at the level I need and play matches, the chances are higher to be competitive again soon, but if I have problems again everything will be more complicated, more difficult,” said by Nadal.
“The main and priority for me is to be healthy“, emphasized the Spaniard who achieved victory number 1,069 on the circuit against Thiem, which saw him surpass Ivan Lendl and put himself in fourth place on the all-time men’s list.
Source: La Verdad
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