Healthy Nadal aims to scale up rankings

‘When you are playing and playing and winning matches, then you have things thatcome very automatic. You don’t need to think much about the things that are happeningor the way that you play points. But when you are out for a while, you need to recover all these automatic things that makes you play easier. That’s the important thing’Rafa Nadal showed there was plenty of life in his battered body yet when he cast aside the disappointments of last year to reach the second round of the Australian Open with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Florian Mayer yesterday. Easily avoiding the embarrassment of a back-to-back first round exits at Melbourne Park, the 30-year-old needed a single break in each set to proceed after a little over two hours in the brutal afternoon sun. The Spaniard sealed the victory with a 39th winner, the 25th off his awesome forehand, and raised his arms to the skies to accept the salute of the crowd on the court where he won the title in 2009. “It’s never easy in the first round,” Nadal said. “There are always a few more nerves at the beginning. The way that he plays is not conventional. It’s not easy to read his game. So I’m just happy with the way that I played. I played well in all the key points. That’s very important for me. For me it’s a great victory.” Seeded ninth after a 2016 season which started with the five-set upset at the hands of Fernando Verdasco at Melbourne Park and was seriously disrupted then curtailed by a wrist injury, Nadal next faces Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis. The wrist injury forced him to withdraw from last year’s French Open and miss Wimbledon, meaning he failed to reach the quarter-finals of any of the Grand Slams for the first time since 2004. After illustrating with his performance that the joint was enabling him to fire on all cylinders, Nadal said he was now fit enough to practice in the way he wanted. “Body’s good, and that’s the key, if the body is not good then everything is more and more difficult, I had to stop before the end of last season,” he added. “After Roland Garros, everything was so difficult. Too many problems with the wrist and that’s all in the past now. Happy to be healthy and happy to be on the tour again.” As his great rival Roger Federer remarked recently, a litany of injuries over his career have forced Nadal to become something of a past master at the tennis comeback. “It’s about getting your confidence back,” he said. “It’s important. When you are playing and playing and winning matches, then you have things that comes automatically. You don’t need to think much about the things that are happening or the way that you played points.” In that regard, Nadal was delighted that his serve remained rock solid throughout the contest, with Mayer unable to rustle up a single break point. The 14-times Grand Slam champion was watched by fellow Mallorcan Carlos Moya, the former world number one who Nadal has brought into his coaching team for this year. “He’s a great friend of mine, he was a very important person in my career in the early days,” said Nadal. “For me to have him on the bench helping with the rest of the team makes me happy. I’m excited about 2017.”  Nadal said his current ranking affected his confidence and he was focused on returning to the top rungs. “Oh, yes, it makes a difference. Is much better be number one than number nine. Is no question about that,” he said. “But I am number nine today. That is just the real thing. Today I’m the ninth player of the world. I am going to fight to not be worse, and I going to fight to be again better. I feel that if I am playing well and I am healthy, I think I can be much better. I am happy with the way I have had the chance to play for a long, long time in this sport. I expect to keep playing for few more years.” Nadal said at his peak things became automatic when winning matches and he was looking to retrieve those instincts this year. “When you are playing and playing and winning matches, then you have things that come very automatic,” he said. “You don’t need to think much about the things that are happening or the way that you play points. But when you are out for a while, you need to recover all these automatic things that makes you play easier. That’s the important thing.” Nadal looks well on the way to regaining winning confidence, returning to the Australian Open where he was dumped out in the first round last year by compatriot Fernando Verdasco in a five-set boilover. There was no likelihood of a repeat ambush by Mayer this time. “Today was not an easy match. I had the break in the third and in the second set in the key game, at 4-all,” he said. “But before he was serving well, so I didn’t have the possibility to have the break. Today was a good first round for me. Florian is a tough first player to play against.”  Nadal is bidding to win his second Australian Open after beating Roger Federer for the 2009 crown. His trademark never-say-die retrieving behind the baseline was a feature as he fought for every point against Mayer. Nadal broke Mayer’s service in the ninth game of the final set with a forehand winner and served out for a straight sets victory.