Nadal is back! Watch his magical strokes on clay, where he made his first appearance in 2 years

You would probably be hard pressed to find an athlete who is as dominant as Rafael Nadal on clay. The Spanish tennis player returned to his favourite surface after 2 years after major health setbacks and won the first round of the Masters in Barcelona against Flavio Cobolli 6-2 and 6-3.

This warrior is not yet part of the old guard. Rafael Nadal returned after 3 months without a match and showed that he has lost practically none of his magic. The break without tennis was extremely long.

Yes, 3 months isn’t that long, but before the Brisbane tournament in January, Nadal hadn’t played all year. He was injured again in Australia, had to miss the Australian Open and the prestigious tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami.

In early March, he played an exhibition match with his successor Carlos Alcaraz, only to pick up a minor injury again.

He was preparing for the clay court season, as he had made the start of Rolland Garros his main goal in his last season. He hadn’t yet withdrawn from Monte Carlo, but in Barcelona he confirmed his entry and the draw awarded him the 62nd player on the ATP ranking, Flavio Cobolli.

It was clear that the young Italian couldn’t compete with the king of clay, but the question was in what condition Nadal would be. And the 37-year-old tennis player showed that he was in a very good shape.

The magic left-hander

On Rafael Nadal’s court, which is named after the record winner of the tournament, “El Toro” showed several times what the whole tennis world admired him for. And that is winning shots from defensive and very difficult positions.

He also showed that even after 92 titles he is not lacking motivation. Moreover, he included many more shortcuts in his game, whose precise executions made the whole stadium cheer.

But in the second round, Nadal is not going to have it easy. He will challenge Alex De Minaur, the 11th player in the world, who is playing in quite solid form. He dominated the tournament in Acapulco in March and reached the quarter-finals in Monte Carlo last week, where he gave Novak Djokovic a hard time.

Source: X, ATP Tour