World No.1 Rafael Nadal will make his return to tennis for the first time since the Australian Open and the Spaniard is hoping that his injury concerns are behind him. He had to do a double-take in late February when he showed up to defend his runner-up points at Acapulco but suffered a relapse of the same injury that knocked him out of the Australian Open.
Ahead of this weekend’s tie in Valencia, Nadal appears to believe he is in better condition.
“I had to restart all the processes—stop for 25 days and then start slow again. I had some tough moments for the last few months but that’s the sport and that’s part of my career, too. Here I am very excited to try to help the team to be in the semifinals,” Nadal said.
The Spaniard will face Philipp Kohlschreiber on Friday, while his compatriot David Ferrer will face Alexander Zverev.
Nadal is 22-1 in his career in Davis Cup singles play, with his only loss coming in his very first singles match way back in 2004. Since then, Nadal has won 61 of the 66 Davis Cup sets he’s played, and he owns a 17-0 lifetime record at Davis Cup in ties that were played on clay.
Nadal holds a 14-1 lifetime record against Kohlschreiber—5-0 on clay.