Rafa Nadal had a first competitive contact this Wednesday with a view to his participation in the Wimbledon tournament, the third ‘Grand Slam’ of the season, with a match against the Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka on display in Hurlingham.
The Balearic decided last Friday that his intention was to play the English great and last Monday he already did his first training session in London to test the sensations in his left foot which, for the moment, does not seem to give him too much trouble.
With the grass court tour about to end, the double Wimbledon champion signed up for this exhibition tournament where there are also other players such as the Serbian Novak Djokovic, the Murcian Carlos Alcaraz or the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, precisely the rival against the who is scheduled to play next Friday in what will be his last tune-up.
At the moment, the number four in the world, who has not played at Wimbledon since 2019, picked up the pace on this surface with a duel against the Swiss Wawrinka, triple ‘Grand Slam’ champion and who is also trying to recover his best level after a long absence for injury.
Apparently Nadal left a good feeling in his solid win in two sets against Lausanne 6-2, 6-3 in just one hour and that helped him to get used to playing on this surface and see if the treatment he has opted for works with a higher demand.
The one from Manacor started very firmly both on serve and return and with two ‘breaks’ he got a comfortable 5-1 that allowed him to close the first set, although he missed a serve along the way. In the second set, there were more alternatives and more problems for the Spaniard with his serve.
Thus, after lifting a 0-40 lead at the start of the set, the winner of 22 Grand Slams saw Wawrinka break him in the fifth to give him back a previous break, although he did not break down and broke once more afterwards to achieve an advantage that no longer wasted.
