Mubadala World Tennis Championships: Rafael Nadal loses to Andy Murray, but both are happy

Rafael Nadal considered his unofficial return to the competition in Abu Dhabi a “positive start” when he dropped out to Andy Murray in a quality show match on Friday. In the battle between the two former world champions, the Scot won 6-3, 7-5 in the semi-finals of the Mubadala Tennis World Championship. Nadal, who had only played two games in six months after a leg injury that prevented him from wimbledon and the US Open, returned to the game for the first time since August.

“I think I did a lot of things well and other things, of course after a long time, I have to recover again, some things that come in the race automatically,” Nadal said after meeting Murray for the first time. time since 2016.

“Now I have to think more, or you don’t have extra time to make the right decisions.”

“Overall, the match has been positive, I even had a chance to win that second round.”

“It’s just a positive start. I played even better than I thought a few weeks ago.”

The 20-time Grand Slam champion says he only started playing practice series two days ago.

“In Mallorca, I played zero of these matches for the last five months. I just did the exercises and something more in control to try to get my foot on normal development,” Nadal explained.

On Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, Nadal practiced with Denis Shapovalov, the 14th on the world list, who was impressed.

“He killed me on the field yesterday, so I think he’s fine,” said the 22-year-old Canadian.

The second intensive session came in 5th in the world for Andrei Rubleville, who said their two-and-a-half-hour hit left him “destroyed.”

Meanwhile, Murray was pleased with his two victories in the Abu Dhabi show so far, when he defeated Britain’s Daniel Evans on Thursday before handing over Nadal.

Murray did a strong performance on Friday, serving well and moving comfortably with his metal hip.

“I saw him play well,” Nadal said. “I think he played good tennis last year and it looks like he’ll be able to play more often now with smaller restrictions. I can see him moving well.”

Nadal plans to fly to Melbourne later this month to compete in the ATP 250 before the Australian Open.

All players who want to be involved in Melbourne Park in January have a vaccine authorization, and Nadal was asked if he was behind such a decision.

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“I’m not with or without it, I just follow what the health organization says,” Nadal said.

“I don’t pretend to know more than authorized people say.”