{"id":385906,"date":"2024-04-17T22:22:20","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T22:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=385906"},"modified":"2024-04-18T03:06:47","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T03:06:47","slug":"its-never-easy-demon-upstages-nadal-in-big-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=385906","title":{"rendered":"'It's never easy': Demon upstages Nadal in big win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rafael Nadal's<\/a> first tournament since January lasted only two matches with the Spaniard losing 7-5, 6-1 to Alex de Minaur<\/a> at the clay-court Barcelona Open.<\/p>\n

Nadal, back from an injury layoff, looked like his old self for brief moments in the second-round match but couldn't keep up with the 11th-ranked de Minaur.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moment I lost the first set, the match was over,\u201d Nadal said. \u201cI can't play a three-hour match right now. This wasn't the place for me to give everything I have. We'll see what happens in Paris. I want to be competitive there, that's where I have to give it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Nadal is a 14-time winner at Roland-Garros<\/a>, which begins next month. He said he will try to play at the Madrid Open next week but didn't fully commit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn't want to take any risks,\u201d Nadal said. \u201cThe important thing here was to play and I played. To be on the court is great news.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 22-time Grand Slam champion had comfortably defeated 62nd-ranked Flavio Cobolli in straight sets<\/a> in the first round in what was his first competitive match in more than three months.<\/p>\n

Nadal again looked injury-free against de Minaur but was never in control against the in-form Aussie, who picked up his second career win over Nadal.<\/p>\n

"I think about the only thing I might have on Rafa on clay is physicality at this stage of his career," De Minaur said.<\/p>\n

"I decided to try and make the rallies quite physical and long, use my speed to my advantage. It's never easy against him."<\/p>\n

It was only Nadal's fifth defeat at the Barcelona Open, a tournament he has won a record 12 times.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt's natural that this was probably my last match here,\u201d Nadal said. \u201cI really enjoyed playing here. It was unimaginable to win it 12 times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nadal is returning from yet another injury layoff and hadn't played since an exhibition match against Carlos Alcaraz in March.<\/p>\n

Before this week, he had played only three competitive matches this year \u2014 all in Brisbane in January \u2014 before skipping the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

Nadal also withdrew from Monte Carlo, saying he his body wasn't ready.<\/p>\n

The 37-year old Nadal had hip surgery last summer and said 2024 will probably be his last year playing on tour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rafael Nadal's first tournament since January lasted only two matches with the Spaniard losing 7-5, 6-1 to Alex de Minaur at the clay-court Barcelona Open. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":385908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385906"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=385906"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":385911,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385906\/revisions\/385911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/385908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=385906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=385906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=385906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}