Coach Marc Lopez has confirmed that Rafael Nadal is indeed not at his 100 percent but also reveals that his team is doing its best to convince the 22-time Grand Slam champion that it’s not as bad as he might think.
After suffering a setback early in his comeback, Nadal managed to finally return to action last week and now he is also playing in Madrid. But at the start of the week in Madrid, 37-year-old Nadal raised some concerns when he revealed that if the French Open was starting now, he wouldn’t be ready to play.
Then in his Madrid opener, Nadal demolished Darwin Blanch 6-1 6-0.
“He is very competitive. Whatever he does, he wants to win and be 100%. Be it golf, tennis or ludo. What about Paris? I think that right now he is not at 100%, which is normal, but from the outside we try to tell him that he is better than he thinks… I think he is competitive, improving day by day and taking baby steps forward, to reach Roland Garros in the best way, which is the great goal,” Lopez told Punto de Break.
Rafael Nadal© Getty Images Sport – Clive Brunskill
Nadal is set for a tough test today
Last week, Nadal started his Barcelona campaign with a routine 6-2 6-3 win over Flavio Cobolli to set up a second-round meeting against world No. 11 Alex de Minaur. Against recent Acapulco champion de Minaur, Nadal competed well but then lost a tight first set before suffering a 5-7 1-6 loss to the Australian.
Today, Nadal is set for a rematch against de Minaur. Since de Minaur’s style of tennis includes lots of running and the Australian is capable of defending well, today’s match could be a great physical test for Nadal.
Getty Images Sport – Clive Brunskill© Getty Images Sport – Clive Brunskill
De Minaur enters the match as the favorite but Nadal can play freely without expectations and it will be interesting to see how the Spaniard can do this time against the world No. 11 and if he can end on the winning side.
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