"I know the way" - Nadal looks ahead after Cincinnati loss

Rafael Nadal lost to Borna Coric in a close 3-set match and he underlined the need to improve ahead of the US Open.

Nadal returned to tennis last night in Cincinnati taking on Borna Coric and the Spaniard was beaten in three sets by the Croatian. He wasn't particularly thrilled by it because he wanted to get in a few matches in before the US Open but he understood why it happened:

"Obviously I didn't play my best match. [It is] something that can happen. Historically this tournament has been difficult for me. So coming back from a tough period of time, [it is] something that's easy to accept and easy to say congrats to Borna, that he played better."

It showed Nadal that he needs to improve to get where he wants to be and the only way to do that is to play more tennis:

"It's difficult to take a lot of positive things, but I need to improve. I need to practise. I need to return better. I need days [on the court], and that's the truth. Obviously I had my chances in the beginning. In the tie-break I had two important chances with two set points that I played terrible with two more-or-less easy shots."

The loss doesn't worry him too much and he knows what he needs to do and how to do it:

"You lose, you move forward. I know the way. The main thing for me is to stay healthy. It has been a difficult injury to manage, to be honest. The last month and a half hasn't been easy, because having a tear on the abdominal, you don't know when [you are]100 per cent over the thing, so that affects a little bit in terms of not [being] sure if you are able to try your best in every serve."