Rafael Nadal says he has no doubts over a knee injury as he destroyed his opening round opponent at the Australian Open on Monday.<\/p>\n
The world No.1, a beaten finalist to Roger Federer in Melbourne last year, clinically took apart Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominican Republic 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 in 94 minutes in the night match on Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n
The Spaniard will play Leonardo Mayer of Argentina in the second round.<\/p>\n
Nadal, who is gunning for a 17th major title, was hampered by a knee injury at the tail-end of the 2017 season.<\/p>\n
It forced him to skip the lead-up Brisbane International this month, and he only had a one-match workout at the exhibition Kooyong Classic in Melbourne ahead of the open.<\/p>\n
But he said his troublesome right knee felt absolutely fine during his rout of Estrella Burgos.<\/p>\n
“It’s feeling good,” Nadal said. “If I did not feel myself ready I would not be here. I am happy to be here and happy to be on court again. I always have doubts, but at the same time I have confidence that I was ready to start the tournament and that was the case.”<\/p>\n
Nadal, who wore no protective strapping on his knee, left nothing to chance with eight service breaks and 28 winners in a complete first-up performance.<\/p>\n
It took the 31-year-old Spaniard’s Australian Open record to 52-11 as he chases his second Australian title after beating Federer in the 2009 final.<\/p>\n
“It’s a positive start with a good result. If I do months without playing official match it’s always a little bit more difficult,” he said.<\/p>\n
“But I started with positive feelings. That’s most important thing for me now.<\/p>\n
“Of course, there are things to improve. But the thing that I need to improve, the matches will give me those things.<\/p>\n
Victories are the most important thing now.”<\/p>\n
Nadal needs to reach the quarter-finals to be certain of retaining his world number one ranking after the Australian Open, with Federer breathing down his neck.<\/p>\n
The top seed only conceded three games in the match and had few problems with Estrella Burgos, who has a modest 6-15 record at Grand Slams.<\/p>\n
Nadal is at his first major tournament in years without his uncle Toni, who coached him from childhood until after his US Open win last year.<\/p>\n
Toni Nadal is now coaching at the Rafael Nadal Academy, with his nephew under the tutelage of Carlos Moya.<\/p>\n
“Toni was not always in the (player’s) box. It’s true that in the Grand Slams he was here all the time,” Nadal said.<\/p>\n
“I cannot think about that all day. I just have to move forward, believe in the team I have. I feel lucky I have Carlos today in my box, and the rest of the team that is a huge support.<\/p>\n
“Toni is the most important person in my career,” he added.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rafael Nadal says he has no doubts over a knee injury as he destroyed his opening round opponent at the Australian Open on Monday. The world No.1, a beaten finalist to Roger Federer in Melbourne last year, clinically took apart Victor Estrella Burgos of the Dominican Republic 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 in 94 minutes in the night match on Rod Laver Arena. The Spaniard will play Leonardo Mayer of Argentina in the second round. Nadal, who is gunning for a 17th major title, was hampered by a knee injury at the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,5,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6402,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6400\/revisions\/6402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dinnews.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}