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BRISBANE: Rafa Nadal marked his singles comeback after being out injured for nearly a year with a convincing 7-5, 6-1 victory over Austrian former world number three Dominic Thiem in the Brisbane International first round on Tuesday.
The 22-times Grand Slam champion had arthroscopic surgery last June after injuring his left hip flexor during his second round defeat by Mackenzie McDonald at the Australian Open in early 2023.
Nadal returned to competitive tennis in the new season on Sunday and crashed to a doubles defeat while partnering retired veteran Marc Lopez but showed glimpses of his top form ahead of the Jan 14-28 Melbourne Park major.
He will now play Jason Kubler in the second round after the Australian wildcard progressed when Aslan Karatsev was forced to withdraw injured with the scores locked at one set apiece.
“Today is honestly an emotional and important day for me after probably one of the toughest years of my tennis career,” Nadal said. “I had the chance to come back after a year and play in front of an amazing crowd and play at a very positive level on the first day is something that makes us feel proud.”
Nadal spent time at his academy in Kuwait to prepare for the Australian summer and trained there with fast-rising French teen Arthur Fils.
He looked like he had never been away as he lost only six points on serve throughout the match and made few unforced errors in an almost perfect display against a quality opponent.
Nadal’s 1,069th men’s tour-level victory meant he surpassed Ivan Lendl to sit fourth in the all-time list.
“As you can imagine, today it wasn’t a statistic I was aware of,” Nadal said. “I had enough work just to be focused and come back on court and remember how to play in a competitive match. There were nerves and doubts before the match. But things went well and I’m excited to be back.”
Earlier, fifth-seeded American Sebastian Korda and Argentinian sixth seed Sebastian Baez both crashed out.
Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann downed Korda 7-5, 6-4 while Baez lost to Lukas Klein, with the Slovakian qualifier winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
In the women’s draw, former world number one Victoria Azarenka came back from second set jitters to see off Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya 6-1, 7-6 (10/8), while Sofia Kenin, a former Australian Open winner, was stunned by Australian wildcard Arina Rodionova 7-5, 7-6 (9/7).
US Open holder Coco Gauff started her new season with a victory at the Auckland Classic as the 19-year-old defending champion beat fellow American Claire Liu 6-4, 6-2.
Gauff, who is looking to improve on last year’s fourth-round finish at the Melbourne Park, next plays world number 117 Brenda Fruhvirtova after the Czech 16-year-old defeated Anna Blinkova 7-5, 6-4.
Second seed Elina Svitolina eased to a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Caroline Wozniacki and next meets 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu who returned following wrist and ankle surgeries to beat Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-3, 4-6, 7-5.