Rafael Nadal marked his return to competitive tennis with a straight set win in the first round of the Melbourne Summer Set Open.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion is playing his first singles tournament since August after being sidelined from action due to a foot injury. Nadal suffers from Muller-Weiss syndrome which is a condition where there is a deformity in the foot that causes pain which could worsen over time.
Taking to the courts, the Spaniard overcame some rust to see off Ricardas Berankis 6-2, 7-5. A former world No.1 junior player from Lithuania. After cruising through the opening set in just 32 minutes, Nadal was given a stern test during the second where he was 5-2 up before losing three games in a row. Despite the blip he managed to regroup and close the match out in straight sets.
“Super happy to be back in competition. It’s difficult to imagine a better place than here [at] the beginning of the season in Australia,” atptour.com quoted Nadal as saying. “It’s only the first match after a while. Honestly, I have been going through some difficult, challenging moments the past year-and-a-half, but in general terms I am super happy to be back in competition.
“Of course it’s important to start with a victory, [which] gives me the chance to play another time tomorrow and that’s the main thing at this moment because I didn’t play for such a long time.”
In his first singles match of 2022, Nadal won 63% of his first service points and broke his opponent five times in total. He also hit a total of 18 unforced errors against 16 winners.
The victory comes after what has been a challenging past few months. Besides his foot injury, he also caught COVID-19 last month after playing at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship where a series of other players also tested positive. As a result, he was forced to delay his fight to Australia.
“I had to be on the bed for a couple of days without having the chance to move much because I was very sick with fever,” Nadal said of his experience with Covid.
“One of the toughest symptoms that I had in my life in terms of flu.”
Whilst Nadal is turning up his game ahead of the first Grand Slam of 2022, one of his rivals is still fighting to be allowed to play. Novak Djokovic has submitted a legal appeal to the Melbourne Court after his visa was rejected by officials. The world No.1 applied for a medical exemption to play at the Australian Open amid speculation that he is not vaccinated against COVID-19.
“I think if he wanted, he would be playing here in Australia without a problem,” Nadal said of Djokovic.
“He made his own decisions, and everybody is free to take their own decisions, but then there are some consequences.
“Of course I don’t like the situation that is happening. In some way, I feel sorry for him. But at the same time, he knew the conditions since a lot of months ago, so he makes his own decision.”
In Melbourne Nadal will play either Tallon Griekspoor or Australian Alexei Popyrin in the quarter-finals.
