Rafael Nadal will play his first round of the ATP 500 tournament in Barcelona, Tuesday, against the Italian Cobolli (63rd) The Spaniard will end 102 days (or more than three months) without competition since his defeat in early January against Thompson in the quarter-finals in Brisbane. “I'm happy to be here, I have a lot of very good memories of this tournament (which he won twelve times), I was able to make the last-minute decision to come here.
The week of training was good and tomorrow (Tuesday) I will be on court,” says Nadal. The former world No. 1 has had to deal with abdominal problems over the last two months and was forced to modify his actions on duty to cope with the pain. Nadal: “We'll keep moving forward as long as I think it's worth it. At this point in my career, rather than lamenting about the places I can't be, I'd rather be happy. I'm taking this as my last year and I want to enjoy every moment"