Rafael Nadal lost to Alex de Minaur in the second match of his return to tennis in Barcelona on Wednesday.
The 25-year-old Australian, ranked No. 11 in the world, won 7-5, 6-1, for his first victory against the 22-time Grand Slam champion on the ATP circuit.
Nadal, 37, cruised to an easy victory against Italian world number 62 Flavio Cobolli on Tuesday in his first appearance on clay since the 2022 French Open final, but struggled to cope with the constant intensity of From Minaur in the second round. He was understandably cautious with both his serve and his movements, appearing reluctant to fully extend on several occasions, with his mind no doubt on the French Open 2024 in just over a month’s time.
Nadal is considered the greatest clay-court player of all time – with a record 14 titles at Roland Garros, as well as 12 at Barcelona – where the center court he lost on Wednesday is named after him.
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A defeat – and yet an encouragement
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Despite an ultimately one-sided score, it was by no means a humiliating defeat for Nadal.
A clash with one of the ATP Tour’s most durable athletes – and players in form in 2024 – is a test for anyone currently on the tour. De Minaur is a phenomenal mover and was always going to be a big question as to Nadal’s physical situation, despite the Australian’s spotty record on clay.
De Minaur, nicknamed “Demon”, has a track record in this area, having beaten Andy Murray in each of their six meetings – all of which followed Murray’s hip resurfacing surgery in 2019.
On Wednesday, Nadal remained alongside his opponent, 12 years his junior, during a first set which he narrowly lost. Even in the more one-sided second set, he was competitive in a number of games that he failed to close out. In the end, De Minaur was not only better than Cobolli, his first-round opponent, but also wiser; he used a drop-shot to test Nadal’s movement from the first match and frequently maneuvered him around the court.
At the end of the second set, when he was breaking down at the age of two, Nadal noticeably withdrew into himself. Although this may seem unusual and give pause to his fans, accustomed to a player who plays every match in the moment without worrying about the consequences, it is encouraging. Nadal is playing “out of match” for the first time in his career, looking forward to his favorite tournament in Paris next May, and he still made some magical shots that brought the crowd to their feet. But once he lost the first set, Nadal never really looked like he was going to make the match competitive.
We hope he will now focus on the Madrid Masters, which he has won five times and which starts next week. With two matches under his belt in Barcelona, Nadal should move closer to playing at Roland Garros next month. But that will only become clear by seeing how his body reacts to what was his first clay-court event in almost two years.
(Pau Barrena/AFP via Getty Images)