Rafael Nadal has calmed all his fans, who were on edge after the Spanish legend's hip pain returned in his last match in Brisbane, where he lost in the quarterfinals against Jordan Thompson. In post-match statements, collected by José Morón, of Puntodebreak, in his official X account (formerly Twitter), he confirmed that he feels pain, but that he is far from being the same, and that he hopes to be able to go to the
Australian Open.
"The problem is in a similar place to last year, but it's not the same. If it had been the same, I would have felt it right away. Last year it was the tendon and this I feel it more at a muscular level. Right now, I have a very fatigued muscle. I have to see how I wake up tomorrow, but I hope to be training next week in Melbourne. The problem is that it is in a similar area and that makes you worry a little more than normal," said Nadal.
"In an ideal world, the best thing would be for the muscle to be super-charged after the effort of these three days and a match as hard as today. That would be the best thing that could happen and what is normal in this process after a year without playing. I hope that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow the feeling I have now will go away. If I don't feel better, I'll have some tests and we'll see," he added.
Regarding the defeat against Thompson, Rafa Nadal wanted to give full credit to the Australian: "You have to accept all these things. After a year, it is normal that things happen. As I say, every day is a different story, and things are difficult after so long. Today the opponent played well. They made me play at a higher pace. I didn't play badly, but I missed a ball".
"Well, I'm tired, of course. Sad right now because I had a lot of chances. But I think he played a good game. For me, even though it wasn't the best match, I had a lot of chances to win it, so.... That's it, isn't it?" he concluded.
