Rafael Nadal's return to the men's circuit was quite impressive, winning two of the three tournament finals he entered after having been on the sideline for seven months due to knee injury.
Knocked out by the little-known Czech, Lucas Rosol, in five sets in the second round of Wimbledon last July, the former world No 1 and defending gold medallist shocked the world by withdrawing from London Olympics and then followed it by a series of withdrawals before making it clear to the public he needed a break from the game to heal his knee.
The 11-time Major winner had been rather hesitant in his comeback to the ATP Tour and decided to skip this year's opening Grand Slam event in Australia where the pundits anticipated that he would resume action. The five-hour dramatic showdown with Novak Djokovic at the Rod Laver Arena in 2012, which he eventually lost in a heart-breaking fashion, was perhaps the best match of that year and fans wishing to see a rematch of the two in Melbourne were left disappointed.
Instead, the Spaniard, who has slipped from two to five in the world rankings, opted to make an unambitious return in a small ATP clay-court event in Vina del Mar, Chile. His unexpected participation in South America caught the attention of the media quite hugely and crowds were highly supportive of the king of clay throughout the entire first week of February.
Invincible on the red dirt, the emperor was brought down to the earth by dark horse Haracio Zeballos of Argentina, ranked only 93rd in the world, in three tough sets in the final. But it was not something surprising judging by the fact that Nadal had been away from the game for long which meant he needed time to shake off some rust.
Nadal opted to skip indoor hard-court tournaments in Europe to regain momentum and at the same time test the condition of his knee on clay in South America. The result was positive as he captured back-to-back titles in Sao Paulo and Mexico with wins over big names such as David Nalbandian, Nicolas Almagro and fellow countryman and world No 4 David Ferrer. Furthermore, he did not drop a set on his way to the title in the last tournament.
Nadal made the right decision to make a comeback on clay as the surface is more friendly to his knee and in general to all players because it helps support your feet and knees. If he had to start on cement, it could have been bad for his knee and body, which need to make quick adjustments besides requiring fitness and speed.
However it would be too soon to say that Rafa is ready to rejoin the elite group of Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray because his real test is in this week's ATP Masters 1000 in Indian Wells, which is played on hard court. We all know he is capable of running down all shots on clay and wait until his opponents lose patience, but on a cement surface it's a different story. The Mallorcan is not so dangerous on hard surface as his game is not based on offensive. The fast hard-court surface complements those with huge serves and attacking groundstrokes, which makes the tour highly competitive these days. Both Novak and Federer have dominated the men's game with this kind of style and the new kids on the block are following their footsteps.
So, Rafa will have to dig deep to catch up with the young players and to find himself, again, in the same league with the top three players including Andy Murray. With the field of this week studded with far more stellar players compared to South America, Rafa will be pushed to the limits. The whole world is keeping a close watch on how he would react to big guns on a challenging surface after such a long intermission.
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Article source: http://www.thethailandlinks.com/2013/03/10/world-will-be-looking-at-nadals-progress/
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