{"id":388165,"date":"2024-04-26T01:52:39","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T01:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=388165"},"modified":"2024-04-26T03:04:17","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T03:04:17","slug":"struggling-nadal-reveals-telling-de-minaur-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=388165","title":{"rendered":"Struggling Nadal reveals telling de Minaur truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rafael Nadal<\/a> couldn't learn much from his comfortable straight-sets win over American teenager Darwin Blanch in the first round of the Madrid Open.<\/p>\n

Nadal<\/a> cruised to a 6-1, 6-0 victory over the mistake-prone 16-year-old Blanch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t test much my body today,\u201d the 37-year-old Nadal said. \u201cI played a decent match doing the things that I had to do to be through, but at the same time I played against a player … making more mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Blanch, playing only in his second ATP tour match, made 27 unforced errors. Nadal never faced a break point and was in control from the start against the wildcard entry, closing the match in just over one hour at the Caja Magica center court in the Spanish capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think today I played against an opponent with a great future,\u201d Nadal said. \u201cBut today, still making mistakes. I just tried to be there, be solid all the time without taking a lot of risks. It worked well. I\u2019m happy to be through and I wish him all the very best for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The encounter marked the largest age gap (21 years, 117 days) between two opponents at an ATP 1000 tournament.<\/p>\n

Nadal looked in good form and showed no physical limitations in just his third competitive match since returning from his latest injury layoff. He had made his return in Barcelona last week, losing in the second round to Alex De Minaur, who will also be his second-round opponent in Madrid on Saturday.<\/p>\n

"I would be totally surprised if I beat Alex de Minaur on Saturday," he said.<\/p>\n

"At the moment, win or lose isn't the most important. One more win or two won't change anything about my career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope I can give my best and be competitive against De Minaur,\u201d Nadal added. "Every time I have the chance to be on court in this amazing stadium with an unconditional supportive crowd, it means a lot to me. Just trying to enjoy every moment. Tomorrow, one more day of practice here and then after tomorrow, on court again. That makes me feel great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"De<\/p>\n

Nadal had arrived in Madrid saying he was not 100 per cent fit, and that he was only going to play because the clay-court tournament was at home.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the record five-time champion in Madrid said that in his current condition he would not play if this was Roland-Garros, a tournament he has won a record 14 times.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard is trying to get back in shape for the tournament in Paris for what will likely be his last Roland-Garros appearance. The French Open begins next month.<\/p>\n

A 22-time grand slam champion, Nadal had hip surgery last summer and said 2024 would probably be his last year on tour. He had skipped Monte Carlo, and his last tournament had been in Brisbane in January, when he played three matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is before, most of the time, I was able to give my 100 per cent of the 100 per cent,\u201d Nadal said. \u201cToday I\u2019m able to give my 100 percent of sometimes 40 percent, sometimes 60 per cent, sometimes 70 per cent, and if I am able to raise this percentage day after day or week after week, why not in the future what can happen? If not, it\u2019s impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rafael Nadal couldn't learn much from his comfortable straight-sets win over American teenager Darwin Blanch in the first round of the Madrid Open. Nadal cruised […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":388168,"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\/388165"}],"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=388165"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":388174,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388165\/revisions\/388174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/388168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=388165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=388165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=388165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}