Tennis - Nadal manages comeback win against Thiem
Top star Rafael Nadal has celebrated a successful comeback on the tennis tour after an injury break of almost a year. In Brisbane, Australia, the 37-year-old Spaniard won his first round match against Austrian Dominic Thiem 7:5, 6:1 and immediately showed his extraordinary class.
"Today is an emotional and important day for me - after probably one of the most difficult years of my tennis career," said Nadal after his victory in 1:29 hours during an interview on the court. He was proud of his "positive level" in his first match. He had gone into the match nervous and with doubts about the long break.
For the 22-time Grand Slam tournament winner, the 250 hard court event in north-east Australia is his first tournament since his dramatic second-round exit at the Australian Open on January 18, 2023, which marked the beginning of his long period of suffering due to a hip injury and renewed doubts as to whether he would continue his career.
2024 probably Nadal's last season
He starts in Brisbane with a wild card and impressed with his service games, in which Thiem often had no chance. Nadal took advantage of a somewhat weaker game from the 2020 US Open winner, who was one of the world's top players before his long-term wrist injury, to make the decisive break at 7:5. A total of five game wins in a row were the basis for the one-sided second set. "I'm not expecting much," Nadal had previously said about his comeback in Brisbane: "Just being here is a victory."
Nadal had announced that 2024 would probably be his last season. The first highlight will be the Australian Open in Melbourne, which begins in just under two weeks. The big goal for the clay court specialist is the French Open in Paris, which he has already won 14 times, and then the Olympics, also in the French capital.
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Source: www.stern.de
