In the second round of the men's singles at the 2024 ATP 500 Barcelona tournament, the 37-year-old Nadal faced the No. 4 seed De Minaur. Nadal has not yet returned to his best form, he lost two sets in a row to De Minaur 0-2, unfortunately missed the men's singles round of 16, and also missed the 13th crown of Barcelona, and only won one match in the first tournament of his comeback.
Rafael Nadal has been plagued by injuries over the last two seasons, having been sidelined by surgery after surgery at the Australian Open last season, and has been out of action again this season after a brief comeback in Brisbane. Until today, Nadal has made a comeback in Barcelona, and it is also his return to clay after two years.
In the first round of the Barcelona tournament, Nadal swept past Italian teenager Corboli 2-0 in straight sets, 6-2 and 6-3, and only dropped five games in the whole match.
Now Nadal is in the second round of the men's singles, facing the tournament's No. 4 seed De Minaur. Nadal said: "Against a top player like De Minaur, I don't know if I'm ready or not. It's going to be a test for me to see if I can adjust and at least try to be competitive. ”
In the first set of this game, De Minaur took the lead in breaking and winning two games in a row, and then both sides held serve in the next two games, Nadal broke and then held serve in three games, and overtook De Minaur 4-3 in the first four games. The two sides then held serve in succession, tied at 5-5 in the first ten games, and De Minaur completed a key break in the 11th game at the end of the set, and won the service game smoothly, Nadal regretted dropping the first set at 5-7.
Entering the second set, Nadal was suppressed by De Minaur after holding serve in the first game, and frantically lost 6 games in a row to swallow the invisible egg, thus losing another set 1-6, and finally lost to De Minaur 0-2 on aggregate. Nadal's form in his first tournament back is still poor, and there are concerns about when he will be able to adjust to his form, as well as his prospects at this year's French Open.