Five thoughts after Rafa Nadal returned to the practice court.
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This was a media event as much as it was a training session, as much about sending out the message that he intends to challenge for the Australian Open title as it was about working on his serve and his lasso forehand. So the press were invited along to an indoor hard court to watch Rafa Nadal and his uncle Toni. Nadal also publicised the practice session, sharing some photographs and some videos with his 11 million fans on Facebook – the first video, 15 seconds long, showed Nadal striking groundstrokes at the baseline, and the second, all 36 seconds of it, saw him working on his serve. “Today was my first tennis practice after all these weeks. Getting better and hope to continue with the positive trend,” said Nadal, whose last competitive tennis was in June, a second-round defeat to Lukas Rosol at Wimbledon.
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Despite the optimism – Nadal is scheduled to play in an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi at the end of December – that doesn’t mean that Hoffa’s Fat Pad will suddenly disappear from the tennis lexicon. Everyone in tennis hopes that Nadal will return to the tour able to compete at his best, but there is always going to be the flickering concern that the problems with his knees will reappear – indeed, until we see him play a competitive match, it is difficult to assess what sort of shape he is going to be in. From what we could see on the videos, he was striking the ball just fine, but there’s a world of difference between a practice session and trying to beat Novak Djokovic on the Rod Laver Arena. What should we expect from Nadal when he returns to the tour? Even operating at 90 per cent of his former powers, he could still carry on winning French Opens. But he would struggle to win trophies at the other slams, at the hard-court Australian and US Opens and at the grass-court Wimbledon Championships.
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The second half of the 2012 season could have turned out quite differently if Rafa Nadal hadn’t been suffering from a partial tear of the patella tendon and inflammation of the Hoffa’s Fat Pad. You wouldn’t have heard of Lukas Rosol. Would Roger Federer have won a seventh Wimbledon title? Would Andy Murray have won a first slam at the US Open? Despite that, the other members of the top three will wish him well, and will want to see him running about the PlexiCushion courts in Melbourne.
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Rafa Nadal’s long absences from the tour – this certainly wasn’t the first time that his knees have caused him such problems – made you consider how remarkable it is that Roger Federer has hardly missed any tennis during his career. He has taken breaks when he has chosen to, not when his body has screamed at him to stop.
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It is worth remembering that Rafa Nadal is not the only one of the top who has to manage a long-term knee problem. Andy Murray, born with a split kneecap, often finds himself in discomfort, particularly when he’s on a clay court.
It is worth remembering that Rafa Nadal is not the only one of the top who has to manage a long-term knee problem. Andy Murray, born with a split kneecap, often finds himself in discomfort, particularly when he’s on a clay court.
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