Rafael Nadal is the king of the clay courts and after almost two years he is finally back where he belongs: playing a match on beautiful red clay.
Nadal won his Round 1 match at the Barcelona Open on Tuesday, beating world number 62 Flavio Cobolli 6-2, 6-3. And even though it was only Round 1, it was a match of crucial importance for Nadal. Due to various injuries, it was the first time in almost two years that he played a competitive match on clay, his best surface. The last time Nadal competed on clay was the 2022 French Open final, which he won.
Tuesday’s match was also the first competitive match he has played since January, when he was forced to withdraw from the Australian Open with a small muscle tear in his hip.
The 37-year-old Nadal performed excellently against Cobolli. Maybe not as eager to give up his body to save a shot as he once was, but there was never a moment where he was in trouble or out of control. Cobolli, who is 21, seemed a little surprised to be beaten so handily by a man 15 years his senior who had not played on clay in almost 700 days. But Nadal knows both clay and tennis himself, and he seemed comfortable gliding around the court. In short, he looked like Rafa again.
Nadal’s journey back to the court has been a long one. After winning the first two majors of 2022, he struggled with injuries and inconsistency to end the season. Nadal’s 2023 started with a second-round defeat at the Australian Open, and that was pretty much the end of it. A hip injury that hampered him during that game turned into an all-consuming problem, forcing him to miss the remainder of the season.
Born in Spain, Nadal has always felt comfortable in Barcelona. He’s won 12 titles there over the course of his career, so there’s no better place for him to get back into the swing of things. He knows these courts well and plays on his favorite surface. His goal is to play again next month at Roland Garros (where he has won a whopping 14 titles), and if he can continue to avoid injuries, he will be able to do that – and perhaps more.
