London: Rafael Nadal is back. At least that is what Great Britain’s top player Andy Murray had to say after falling in straight sets to the Spaniard in their round-robin match at the O2 Arena here on Wednesday.
Nadal won 6-4, 6-1 showing flashes of his former self when he was at the top of the sport. However, the Spaniard is bound to get better and carry forward that devastating form that saw him reign supreme in men’s tennis a few years.
It was this form that has seen him win an incredible 14 Grand Slams, Olympic gold in Beijing 2008, Davis Cup on four occasions, while also holding the all-time record of 27 ATP Masters 1000 titles.
Now 28, Nadal has also had to deal with a huge number of injuries over the years.
Since winning his first Grand Slam title at the 2005 French Open, Nadal has most notably been forced to miss five Grand Slams and four World Tour Finals. And 2015 has been a year that he may well not want to remember — for the first time ever Nadal ended without a single Grand Slam.
“I think he was hitting the ball extremely well today from the back of the court. From the middle till the end of the second set he played extremely well. But I didn’t really help myself as I served poorly at the end of the first set and all through the second. That’s not going to be good enough against him when he’s playing that well,” Murray said.
“He’s won way more matches the last few months. He’s come back from tight situations which is a sign he is getting back to where he wants to be. I’m sure, even now, but beginning of next year, he’ll be playing at a very, very high level again,” he predicted.
