2023-12-31 12:23:57
For the first time since last January 18, Rafael Nadal once again stepped onto a tennis court in an official match. It was in doubles and with a loss, but for just over an hour he felt competitive again and recovered his feelings ahead of his debut in the singles draw of the Brisbane tournament, where luck has eluded him.
The Spaniard will face Dominic Thiem in the first round, an old acquaintance whom he has faced fifteen times in his sporting career and with whom he has faced in two Grand Slam finals. But a lot has already happened since Thiem set foot on those competitive stages.
The Austrian suffered several wrist problems that damaged his tennis and that in recent years made him unable to be the tennis player who once managed to win the US Open and became number three in the ranking.
To be in this first round in Brisbane, Thiem, now number 98 in the classification, had to pass the qualifying phase, coming back from 2-6, 4-5 and 0-40 against the local James McCabe, 272nd in the ATP, and a set down against Giulio Zeppieri, 135th in the ranking. As a curiosity, during the match against McCabe, a poisonous snake snuck onto the court and the match had to be stopped for more than half an hour.
To go back to the last confrontations between Nadal and Thiem, you have to go back to 2020, when the Austrian won in the quarterfinals in Australia and in the group stage of the ATP Finals in Turin.
Even so, Nadal dominates the head-to-head 9-6 and took the two most important duels they played, the finals of Roland Garros 2018 and 2019, in addition to the semifinals at the Parisian tournament in 2017.
As a warm-up before the debut, which will take place this January 2, Nadal decided to sign up for doubles with Marc López. The Spanish couple, who won the Olympic gold in Rio de Janeiro 2016, lost against the specialists Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson by a doubles 6-4, but Nadal left good feelings on the serve and especially with the backhand, with which he produced the best point of the match in a winning cross.
Marc López, who has been Nadal’s coach alongside Carlos Moyá for several years, came out of retirement, which he confirmed at the last Masters 1,000 in Madrid, to play this match.
In Brisbane, a 250 category tournament, Nadal could meet Aslan Karatsev in the second round, with Ugo Humber in the quarterfinals, Grigor Dimitrov, in the semifinals, and Holger Rune, in the final. During these days in Brisbane, in which Nadal has been accompanied by his wife and his son, the man from Manacor has exercised among others with Rune, which he said had been his hardest training of the year, and with Andy Murray.
#Nadal #debut #Thiem #losing #doubles