Rafael Nadal admitted he was ‘very happy’ after winning his comeback match with a 6-1 7-6(4) victory over Miomir Kecmanovic.
The Spaniard played his first match since a rib injury and was victorious over the in-form Serbian.
Nadal played an impressive first set as he completely dominated the points and dictated the tempo against Kecmanovic.
However the Serb played more aggressively in the second set and came from a break down to force a tiebreak.
In the end though it was Nadal who went through to the last 16 in Madrid where he will play David Goffin.
After the match in his post-match press conference Nadal admitted he was satisfied with his level in his first match back, “Well, I leave the match very, very happy,” Nadal admitted after the match.
“You have to be sincere with yourself whenever you can. You have to be truthful to yourself. My preparation has not existed. You cannot expect great things at the beginning, because before coming here, coming here, first day training was last Thursday, I had trained very, very little.
“Today I was able to play 1 hour 55 minutes against an opponent that was playing really well in these last months, so a really good victory, a lot of value to it. So 1 hour 55 minutes on court helps me a lot to reach my final goal, which is to recover my previous health and previous fitness. I’m very excited about it.
“If you come back and if you win the first matches, then you’re able to get your rhythm back again. Whereas if you come back and you lose and you lose, you end up in a circle of losing that you don’t get the rhythm of matches. So the first matches are key. They have a really big value, and for me it’s really important today’s victory for that reason.”
Nadal will be very happy in his first match that he was able to beat an in-form opponent as he searches for momentum ahead of Roland Garros.
The 21-time grand slam champion also spoke about remaining positive in his comeback and how important that is, “It’s about talking about every
comeback is different,” Nadal said.
“So put everything together have been a very tough first round. I think I managed it very well. I played at a good level, so very pleased with the victory.
“I just try to stay humble to know things not going to be perfect here and just moving forward with the right determination, to accept that I need to fight, I need to stay positive, I need to play with the right attitude, and take every single match that I’m able to win like a present to play another time here.”
Nadal’s positivity and experience in these situations will surely help him over the next few weeks as he looks for a 14th Roland Garros title.
Finally Nadal spoke about playing in front of a 100% capacity in his home crowd for the first time since the Pandemic and what that feeling was like, “Playing in Spain is something really, really important, and here in Madrid, the support and love of the people it’s always been unconditional,” Nadal stated.
“I am conscious of my age that I don’t know how many more times I’m going to be able to have the opportunity to play here in front of these people, so I just try to enjoy it as much as possible. I had really good moments in this court. I don’t know how many times left I have to play in this city.”
Next Nadal will face David Goffin on Thursday for a place in the quarter-finals where the Spaniard leads the head-to-head 4-2.