“I move forward day by day”: in Barcelona, Nadal succeeds in his return to earth
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He came, he saw and he conquered. Between 4:55 p.m. and 6:20 p.m., Tuesday afternoon near Barcelona, on a court that has borne his name since 2017, Rafael Nadal became a tennis player again. After 102 days of absence from the circuit due to hip and then abdominal problems, the Spaniard in early retirement (he will be 38 in June) beat the Italian Cobolli, 63rd in the world (6-2, 6-3) . A small event.
The man with 14 Roland-Garros titles had not played a single match on clay since his last title in Paris in the spring of 2022. A scent of nostalgia therefore floated over Catalonia, as if, from now on, any exit from the old world No. 1 could be his final turn on the ocher track.
Everyone watching the Majorcan’s rituals like a Proust madeleine, wondering how many more times they would see him conscientiously replace his two bottles in front of his bench, fiddle with his underwear under his slightly too tight shorts or throw “vamos” in clenching his fist. With the fear that his bruised body will show him the way to the locker room or the infirmary at any moment.
“Tomorrow there will be a rhythm and I don’t know if I will be able to follow it”
In his purple outfit with orange borders, the left-hander from Manacor started cautiously, particularly in the service where he had to shorten his gesture to juggle with the ever-present pain and where he largely favored placement over power. “I haven’t been able to serve for a few months, and although I’m very excited about playing here, I’m not going to do things that are out of logic,” he explains. A huge direct error on the forehand followed by a double fault to start, we saw better to gain confidence…
But Cobolli, hardly performing on the surface and in charge of the garden hose (27 unforced errors in the first set), largely contributed to helping his glorious elder, the arm muscles less protruding and the torso a little more rounded.
After dominating the first round and achieving the entry break in the second (2-0), the master of the place (he has won the tournament twelve times) stalled slightly before resuming his march forward.
Difficult to establish a reliable diagnosis after an hour and a half against an ideal opponent to get back in the saddle. There was some good like an effective backhand, an intact touch on drop shots and a few uncrossed forehands which sparked the fervor of the Catalan public. However, still no certainty about the movements and few long rallies to play to gauge his resistance. “There are moments when I feel freer, others when I feel more limited,” he summarizes.
But the main thing was elsewhere, in his pleasure of finding his garden of dust. The step will be significantly higher in the second round against the Australian Alex De Minaur, world No. 11 and recent quarter-finalist in Monte-Carlo. There, we will undoubtedly know what Nadal can really hope for…
“It was a good start,” smiles the Iberian. After months, when you come back, there are doubts on the physical level. They don’t disappear overnight. Cobolli made a lot of mistakes. I played with what I could control, I’m happy with the victory. I don’t know how to approach the next match, I’m moving forward day by day. Tomorrow is a very demanding match, there will be a rhythm and I don’t know if I will be able to follow it. We’ll have to try…”
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