Rafael Nadal ‘not 100% sure of anything’ after Brisbane injury scare
Rafael Nadal has suffered his first defeat since returning to the ATP Tour, with the Spaniard calling the trainer during his deciding set against Jordan Thompson in Brisbane.
Nadal was beaten in the quarter-final against home favourite Thompson, 7-5 6(6)-7 3-6, despite having three match points in the second set.
At 4-1 down in the deciding set, the former No.1 received treatment on his upper-left leg, causing concern for fans that his psoas injury had returned.
While Nadal revealed that the pain was in a similar place, he suggested that it did not seem as serious, “It’s a very similar place to what happened last year, but different stuff, no? I feel more muscle. Last year was tendon. I felt that the muscle was tired.”
He continued, “It’s not the same as last year at all because when that happened, I felt something drastic immediately. Today, I didn’t feel anything. The only problem is because the place is the same, you are a little bit more scared than usual.
“In an ideal world, it’s just the muscle supercharged after a few days of effort and a very tough match. That will be the ideal thing, something that we know that can happen today. That is why my goal is to try to be competitive in a few months. A lot of things can happen in a body like mine after a year without playing tennis. So hopefully, it’s just that, just a muscle that is supercharged. If that’s the thing, everything is perfect.”
Incredible to see you back on the tennis court, @RafaelNadal 👏#BrisbaneTennis pic.twitter.com/hTQQiakrlT
— Brisbane International (@BrisbaneTennis) January 5, 2024
However, the 22-time Grand Slam champion could not confirm whether he would definitely be able to play at the Australian Open, “I need to accept everything how it comes. If things happen, if I have one problem there, one problem to the other part of the body, I need to accept it.
“It’s a beginning, and I haven’t played in a tournament for such a long time. I hope to have the chance to be practising next week and to play in Melbourne [at the Australian Open]. Honestly, I am not 100% sure of anything now.”
Nadal now has a week off, before the 37-year-old prepares to return at the Australian Open that begins on Sunday 14th January.
Inside the baseline…
It has been a fairly positive week for Rafael Nadal, if you focus solely on his time on court, having won two matches and was on the brink of reaching his first semi-final since Wimbledon 2022. Hopefully for Nadal, it was just soreness based on lack of match practice and he should recover in time for the first major tournament of 2024.
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