He may be just days into his return from a year-long injury absence, but already Rafael Nadal is establishing impressive momentum.
The Spaniard advanced to the last eight of the Brisbane International with an emphatic 6-1, 6-2 victory over local favourite Jason Kubler, and while it would be foolhardy to read too much into his progress at this early stage, the evidence would suggest he is making headway faster than his own characteristically cautious pronouncements might imply.
Nadal’s performance did not quite touch the levels he reached in an outstanding 7-5, 6-1 win against Dominic Thiem on Tuesday, when he made just four unforced errors and dropped a miserly six points on serve. Yet it is hard to quibble with the effectiveness of a display in which the Majorcan struck 20 winners, saved all four break points he faced, and returned with such brutal effectiveness that Kubler salvaged just two points behind his second serve.
For Kubler, a former junior world No 1 whose career has been constrained by chronic knee problems, the die was cast early on. On a humid evening in Brisbane, Nadal rattled off all but one of the first 15 points, the 30-year-old Australian’s sole success coming courtesy of a double fault. That start provided Nadal with the platform for a comfortable victory, although he insisted afterwards that he is still feeling his way back into the rhythm of match play.
“Every day is a learning again, no?” said Nadal. “I need to play every single point focused. I try to do it because, doesn’t matter the result, it’s something I need to keep doing, learning again how to play every single point focused and with the right intensity. In the end, it is something that you lose [when inactive because of injury].
“You need to get used to competition again, and to understand the moments of the match, to know when you have to push, know when you can play a little bit more relaxed. It is something that today, I’m not able to do it, no? I need to play every single point very focused. That’s the thing that I need to do now, practise that.”
Nadal has form for a successful injury comeback. Two years ago, he returned from almost six months out with a chronic foot injury to win the Australian Open, then recovered from a cracked rib to win a 14th title at Roland Garros. Those are merely the most recent examples of his talent for climbing off the canvas, an art Nadal has reluctantly mastered over the course of an injury-plagued career.
Encouragingly, the left hip muscle on which he underwent surgery last summer appears to be holding up well so far, with the after-effects of his encounter with Thiem limited to nothing more than the kind of routine soreness one might expect after such a long spell on the sidelines.
“Of course, I had some feelings after the first match,” said Nadal. “It has been a year without playing with the tension of a real match, so I felt a little bit some muscles tired, here and there. But in general terms, I felt good.
“The important thing is [that] the surgery on the psoas-iliac and the hip, that’s not bothering me at all. That’s something that is super important for me.”
Potentially more concerning is the degenerative foot condition, Mueller-Weiss syndrome, that has troubled Nadal since his teenage years. Thankfully, though, that too seems to be under control as the 22-time grand slam champion enters what he has suggested could be his final year on tour.
“For the moment, the foot is answering well,” said Nadal. “That’s for me the main issue, that the foot is problematic, [but] for the moment I am able to move myself with no limitations. That makes me feel happy and be able to play better, without a doubt.”
The only blot on an otherwise satisfactory day’s work came in the form of a time violation for breaching the five-minute limit allowed for a bathroom break by four seconds. The penalty, which came after Nadal left the court to change clothes at the end of the first set, left the Spaniard bewildered.
“I thought I was on time, honestly, then [the umpire] told me I was four seconds late,” said Nadal in his on-court interview. “I am slow, I know that, and I’m going to keep trying to improve in 2024.”
Nadal will face another Australian, the 43rd-ranked Jordan Thompson, for a place in the last four.