Rafael Nadal still has doubts over his foot injury despite defeating Karen Khachanov 6-3 6-2 3-6 6-1 to reach the second week at the Australian Open.
The 20-time grand slam champion continued his search for a second Australian Open title with a four set victory over the powerful Russian.
Despite a third set blip, Nadal recovered to seal victory in four sets with the Spaniard hitting 39 winners in the process.
Speaking in his post-match press conference Nadal said his quick decision-making and aggressive tennis in the fourth set were the keys to victory, “I had a break point with 1-All, then 40-Love with my serve, 15-40 on the return again. Had been three critical games, no? I think I lost little bit the
court I was playing,” Nadal admitted.
“After that I started to play a little bit too far from the baseline. I said, Okay, let’s try to finish that set like this. If I am able to have the break back, fantastic. If not, on the fourth I going to start playing more aggressive again. Let’s see if works. That’s what I did. I think worked really well. I think I played a great fourth set.
“You need to be quick on making the right decisions, analyze what’s happening. This is something when you are not playing is something that don’t come that quick sometimes. Today I was able to analyze I think the proper way.
“I make the right decisions. The quality of shots and the position on court and the movements today I think have been a very high level, no? To win against a great opponent like him, I need to play well, and I think I did.”
Today was the first set that Nadal had dropped in the tournament and the Spaniard will be confident heading into the second week that he can produce a similar level against better opponents.
However not all is positive in the Nadal camp as the former champion revealed he still has doubts over his foot injury and gave an update ahead of the second week, “First of all, I mean, everybody around me, me included, of course, but everybody around me had a lot of doubts,” Nadal admitted.
“Not about Australian Open, no, but about coming back on the tour because the foot was bothering a lot of days. Of course, still today are doubts because the foot, as I said the other day, is an injury we cannot fix the injury, so we need to find a way that the pain is under control to play, to keep playing. That’s the goal.
“Honestly I was not able to practice very often. But when I was practicing, the feeling on the ball was quite good. Have been a lot of months without competing. The movements, all this stuff, you need to recover day by day. There is no way to recover that things without competing. That’s what I need, keep playing. Already three and three, so six matches on my back, and positive ones. Every day a little bit better, so happy for that.”
Nadal will hope the foot injury won’t bother him too much as he searches for a record-breaking 21st grand slam title.
Next for Nadal will be Adrian Mannarino who edged past Aslan Karatsev in four sets and four hours. The Frenchman has also beaten Hubert Hurkacz in this tournament.
Nadal leads the head-to-head 2-0 with their last meeting taking place in Paris-Bercy in 2019.
