Rafael Nadal didn’t impress at all in his opening match at the Barcelona where he defeated the world no.63 Leonardo Mayer 6-7 (7) 6-4 6-2.
The Argentine is a great player, but Rafa looked extremely slow in his movements compared to his standards. He often failed to move around on his forehand (a key factor for him) and he looked flat with his energy and motivation. However, the King of Clay found the solution to win in 3 sets, but his performance wasn’t convincing at all.
Not the best feelings. NADAL
The world no.2 was unimpressed with his performance to reveal that he had the same problems he faced in his defeat against Fabio Fognini in Monte Carlo: “Not the best feelings.”
During the press conference following the match, Nadal commented
“It wasn’t the best start. Not the best feelings out there this afternoon, but I found a way to keep going and to win the match. Today that’s the main thing. [Leonardo Mayer] competes well against everybody but probably today [the problem] was not that he competed very well against me. I was not competing that well.”
Head to head Rafael Nadal vs. David Ferrer
Rafa will face his dear friend David Ferrer that will play this tournament for the last time in his career since he is about to retire from tennis.
This will be the 32nd time that Nadal and Ferrer will face each other. The head to head is 25-6 for Nadal (19-2 on clay). However, given the fact that Rafa is not at his best and Ferrer will be really motivated to end his career in the best possible way, we might expect an upset here.
| NOT HAPPY |
| Embed from Getty Images |
