The Spaniard admits that he is not fully recovered from his abdominal injury
He remembers that the tournament is “historically difficult” for him, and acknowledges that he never had “the best feelings”
The Spanish Rafael Nadal assured this Wednesday, after losing to the Croatian Borna Coric in his premiere in Cincinnati after almost a month and a half off, that “‘he was not ready to win”, and acknowledged that the abdominal injury suffered at Wimbledon still conditions his game and it prevents him from competing one hundred percent. “Obviously I didn’t play my best match. It’s something that can happen, historically this tournament is difficult for me. I was coming back after a difficult period. But this is something easy to accept, it’s easy to say ‘congratulations to Borna’, it was just better.” Nadal said at the post-match press conference at the LindnerFamily Tennis Center.
Nadal acknowledged that he needs “days” and training to gradually recover his best form, after fall 7-6(9), 4-6 and 6-4 against Coric. “Many times I did positive things coming back from injuries, but in this case it’s obvious that he wasn’t ready to win today,” said the Spaniard. Despite the difficulties, Nadal had managed to equalize the match in the second set and also had a 0-30 with Coric on serve in the third set that could change the history of the match. “If you don’t know how to take advantage of those occasions, you lose. But I know the way, the most important thing is to be healthy. I come from an injury that is difficult to manage. With abdominal problems you never know when you have recovered one hundred percent,” he said.
He highlighted his gratitude to the organization of the tournament and to the fans who encouraged him on the central court, although he considered that “for some reason he never” had “the best feelings” in this event. “It’s hard to analyze the match. When you have a scar, the line is very small. When the scar doesn’t have much flexibility, you have to be careful every moment,” he said. “I’ll probably run some tests to make sure everything is okay. But I trained much better than how I played today. Nothing’s wrong,” she insisted.
Nadal’s next challenge will be the US Open, which begins on August 29 and is a tournament in which he has “fantastic memories”.