Resurgent Nadal happy with fitness: “The surgery…is not bothering me at all”

So far, so good for Rafael Nadal on his return from a year out through injury.

Having beaten Dominic Thiem in his opening match at the Brisbane International, the Spaniard cruised into the quarter-finals with a 6-1, 6-2 drubbing of Jason Kubler on Thursday.

His performance, particularly in the first set was impressive, but Nadal was most pleased with the way his body is holding up so far.

“The positive thing is first two matches haven’t been super-long matches,” he said. “Of course, I had some feelings after the first match. I mean, (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.

“In general terms, I felt good. Important thing is 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.

“For the moment, the foot is answering well. That’s for me the main issue, that the foot is problematic, and for the moment I am able to move myself with no limitations. That’s for me makes me feel happy and be able to play better without a doubt.”

Nadal: “First give games were very positive”

Despite the one-sided nature of the scoreline, Nadal had to work hard to get the job done, especially at the start of the second set, when he emerged slightly late from a bathroom break, during which he changed his clothes because of the humidity.

“Today have been a match tougher in terms of humidity than the first day,” he said. “Was very humid out there today. Was tough. I need to get used to that conditions because I was sweating a lot. After the first set I needed to change everything basically.

“Have been a positive match, without a doubt. I think the first five games of the match have been at a very positive level of tennis, doing almost everything the right way. Have been a solid match.. Most of the time I have been playing well, doing the things that I need to do.

“Yeah, happy for the victory. Of course, it’s important for me. It’s important tomorrow I going to be playing again. That’s all important for me at this point.”

Nadal will take on another Australian, Jordan Thompson, in the quarter-finals on Friday.

Nadal laughs off bathroom break warning

Perhaps the most difficult moment for Nadal came at the start of the second set when he was warned by the umpire for being a few seconds late on his return to the court after a bathroom break.

Nadal said he was told he was four seconds late – players are allowed five minutes – which confused him because he had been listening to the discussion on the walkie-talkie between the umpire and official who accompanied him to the locker room.

“If I am not wrong, as far as I know, the rule is you have five minutes inside the locker room,” he said. “After that five minutes, I was outside of the locker room. I don’t know if it was the person that…said to the umpire, four seconds later, that’s what the umpire told me the person said, four seconds later when he called the time that I was going out the locker room. I don’t think that was what happened. I can be wrong.

“My feeling is when they called five minutes, I was walking through the door. Nothing happens. Just anecdotic. I need to know more about the rule because something changed and I missed during this year. I thought I was on time, so that’s why I was surprised.”

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