Rafael Nadal rarely seems to go into a grand slam these days without some kind of question mark hanging over him. This time last year, concern centred on a potentially career-ending foot injury. Twelve months on, the focus has been on the dramatic slump that saw the Spaniard arrive at the Australian Open with six defeats from his previous seven matches.
It has been a torrid period for Nadal, who has also had to contend with a cracked rib and two abdominal tears over the past year. And when the harshest of draws pitted him against Britain’s Jack Draper, many feared the defending champion was in danger of losing in the opening round of a major for only the third time in his career. So he might have done, had a debilitating attack of cramp not prevented Draper from sustaining the outstanding level he showed for the better part of a 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 defeat that spanned three hours and 41 minutes.
As last year’s dramatic title win at Melbourne Park showed, Nadal has acquired a knack for confounding expectations in the autumn of his career. He was far from his best against Draper. Frequently struggling to find length and potency on his forehand, the 22-time grand slam champion finished the afternoon with 46 unforced errors, many of them utterly inexplicable. There were shanks, grimaces and forlorn looks to his box in abundance. But he never went away and, when Draper began to struggle physically late in the third set, Nadal was ready to grasp his opportunity.
Draper conjured one final act of defiance to break at the start of the fourth set, producing some wonderfully enterprising play in the face of further inconsistency from Nadal. But some sharp volleying from the Spaniard set up an immediate opportunity to level and, as a Draper forehand drifted wide, his hopes of pulling off a major upset effectively went with it. As he served at deuce in the fourth game, a gruelling 22-shot rally ended with the 21-year-old pulling up sharply, no longer able to stretch for the ball or drive up through his legs. Draper was never again in contention.
“I needed a victory, so that’s the main thing,” said Nadal, who will face Mackenzie McDonald, a five-set winner over fellow American Brandon Nakashima, in round two. “Doesn’t matter the way. The most important thing today is a victory against a tough opponent.
“It was not perfect. But to win against Jack, I need to do things well, no? I think I did things well. So [I’m] satisfied.
“[It was] a tough battle, but I accepted well the mistakes. I was humble enough to accept that [there were] going to be ups and downs during the match.”
Draper was not helped by a double bout of viral illness over the off-season, which curtailed plans for an extended training block. Yet he fought until the last, refusing to concede in spite of his obvious discomfort, and can take comfort in the knowledge that – in the longest match of his fledgling career – he not only matched but also frequently eclipsed one of the sport’s all-time greats until his physical problems took hold.
“Going to this trip in Australia, I was very undercooked,” said Draper, the world No 38, who was contesting only the third major of his career. “After last year, I was really excited about doing a good pre-season. It’s a good chance to get five weeks of really good training, especially with my new fitness trainer [former Olympic sprinter Dejan Vojnovic], who is amazing.
“I had two viral infections, so had to be on antibiotics on two occasions. Lost five of those seven weeks. Got to be proud of the way I competed in Adelaide [where he was a semi-finalist] and the effort I put in there.”
The task now for Draper, as he acknowledged, is to bring his conditioning up to the same level as his tennis. His opening-round win over Felix Auger-Aliassime at the US Open offered similar evidence of his ability, yet there too his body failed him, a hamstring problem forcing him to retire against Karen Khachanov a couple of rounds later.
“I think I can take away the fact that my tennis is getting closer and closer,” said Draper. “Physically, I’ll be first to say I’m still a work in progress.”
There were no such problems for Draper’s Davis Cup team-mate Cameron Norrie, who bounced back from his emotional defeat to Richard Gasquet in the final of the Auckland Open on Saturday with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-0, 6-3 win over Luca Van Assche of France.
Daniil Medvedev, twice a finalist at Melbourne Park, likewise cruised through his opener, easing aside the 56th-ranked American Marcos Giron 6-0, 6-1, 6-2, while third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Quentin Halys of France 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6).