It was the best of Rafael Nadal; it was the worst of Rafael Nadal.
The 28-year-old Spaniard barely made Tomas Berdych break a sweat in the first two sets of their quarterfinals match at the Australian Open. According to USA TODAY Sports' For the Win reported that the first two sets of Berdych's 6-2, 6-0, 7-6 (5) victory over Nadal barely took an hour.
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Even Nadal seemed angry with himself after the match, tennis.com reported.
"Is obvious that I needed something more to be more competitive, as I did in the third, Nadal said, according to tennis.com. "The third was the right set, the right game that I have to play. But is obvious that before I didn't play with the right confidence, with the right intensity," he said. "Since the beginning of the third, I played with more character, more the way that I have to play to have chances to be where I want to be."
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Confidence is a growing issue for Nadal, mostly because of his growing list of injuries. He won four titles, including the French Open for his 14th Grand Slam title in 2014, but he dealt with back injuries for the first few months of the year after injuring it in his Australian Open finals loss to Stan Wawrinka.
Nadal was shaky during the clay-court season, where he has been king for nearly a decade, losing three matches on the surface before coming back to win his ninth French Open. But after a fourth-round exit at Wimbledon, a wrist injury forced him to withdraw from the U.S. Open, and he missed the year-ending ATP Tour Finals with appendicitis.
He had only an exhibition match in Abu Dhabi and an opening-round loss at Doha, prior to this year's Australian Open.
So the fact that he reached the Australian Open quarterfinals on his grit alone speaks to his greatness.
"Is not a bad result at all for me arriving here the way I arrived: only with one match, only with five matches in seven months," he said. "So taking the positive part, that's the thing that I have to take."
For the Win asked whether the Australian Open result was the start of his "inevitable decline." He had beaten Berdych in 17 consecutive matches before turning the tables on him earlier this week.
Tennis.com again raised issues about Nadal's health, reporting on the match that, "Nadal denied having physical issues and would not say what he had taken during the match."
Once Nadal gets match-ready, he will again be a force in every tournament he enters. The question is however, whether he can stay healthy enough to get match-ready.
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