Rafael Nadal returns to the courts with a victory to his name at Chile Open – Tennis News
After a major eight-month injury layoff, the left-handed Spaniard, Rafael Nadal, has finally stepped back on to the tennis courts for an official contest and surprisingly commenced the new section of his career with a victory.
However, it was a doubles event that witnessed the likes of Juan Monaco teaming up with the former world number one to take the second seeded Czech duo, Likas Diouhy and Frantisek Cermak.
There was no doubt that the 26-year-old Spaniard was feeling pain in the contest but it wasn’t enough to bother him at the level where he wanted to quit the match. The Spanish team won the contest in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 at the
Chile Open and marched on into the second round of the event.
In a post-match press conference, the 11-time Grand Slam Champion said, “The doctors have said it's OK. There is no risk of making it worse. My knee keeps hurting. But the fact I am playing here is a thing of joy. I am not 100%,
I need some weeks. If it hurts, it hurts and we'll put up with it. I am here to play tennis, with or without pain. I'm happy to have played an official game, although it was doubles. It was a great feeling to play again and I'm very happy for doing it with
a friend like Monaco in a great atmosphere that we had on the court.”
Nadal hasn’t played any sort of professional tennis since the second round exit at the Wimbledon Championships that also recorded a terrifying upset for the Czech underdog, Lukas Rosol, who won an enthralling five-setter.
The Spaniard missed the Olympics, the US Open as well as the Barclays Association of Tennis Professionals World Tour Finals. He was scheduled to play in the Australian Open last month but couldn’t recover well enough to feature
in the first Grand Slam of the year. He didn’t play any sort of official tennis for eight consecutive months but just dropped one place from where he left. He is now ranked at world number five but admits the fact that he will slip to maybe the 15th
spot in the world rankings until full recovery.
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