By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Pink is a power color on Rafael Nadal.

The world No. 1 was fully charged up in his Australian Open return.

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Sporting a sleeveless neon pink shirt, Nadal crunched his forehand with ruthless ambition disarming Hugo Dellien 6-2, 6-3, 6-0 rolling into the AO second round for the 14th time in 15 appearances.

Launching his quest to capture his 20th career Grand Slam title and equal rival Roger Federer's mark, Nadal battled through the first five games and breezed through the final eight games closing in two hours, two minutes.

The 2009 champion was stubborn and sweaty at the outset as Dellien earned 10 game points through four games only to see Nadal go into full denial mode snatching a 5-0 lead after 39 minutes.

"Been a tough first five games," Nadal told Jim Courier afterward. "It was 5-0 for me, but he had a lot of chances to win games during that period of time. He's a fighter, he has a great story behind him... I wish him all the very best for a great season—he's a great guy.

"For me personally it has been a posiive start. What you want in the first round is just win and if [it's] straight sets better. I'm happy and excited to be back here in Melbourne."

It wasn't a completely flawless performance. Nadal committed five double faults, failed to serve out the opening set on his first pass and dropped serve up 4-2 in the second set.

Ultimately, the 19-time Grand Slam grew stronger as the match progressed. Nadal drained the strength from the Bolivian baseliner's legs in churning through eight of the last 10 points to build a two-set lead.

An empowered Nadal tore through the final set whipping 18 of his 38 winners in the third set. The top seed converted eight of his 18 break points.


Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve

The build-up to Melbourne has been fulfilling and draining for Nadal, who led Spain to the Davis Cup championship in November and to the inaugural ATP Cup final earlier this month where a Serbian squad led by Novak Djokovic stopped Spain for the title.

Nadal said he took time to recover and has gradually increased the intensity of his practice sessions to prepare for the year's first Slam—and another potential showdown with Djokovic who swept Nadal in the 2019 final.

"I have been not much time between seasons," Nadal said. "I finished late with Davis Cup and started with very demanding competition at the ATP Cup. But I feel very happy.

"I think I take it a little bit slower at the beginning of last week and then start to increase intensity of practices to try to be here competitively. Happy to be back always. This court brings me great memories and a lot of positive energy and I don't want to leave here without saying thank you very much everybody, very speical to be back."

The US Open champion will face either fellow lefty Federico Delbonis or Portuguese Joao Sousa in round two. Nadal is 3- lifetime against both men.