Rafael Nadal finally returned to the tennis circuit with a relatively easy win over Italian Flavio Cobolli at his home Barcelona Open with a 6-2, 6-3 victory. The Spaniard produced an impressive display rolling back the years and now sets up a much sterner contest against 4th seed Australian Alex de MInaur who has been having a good season.
In other matches, British player Cameron Norrie also advanced to the Last 16 with a win over Frenchman Harold Mayot who was forced to retire due to injury.
After already missing the Australian Open, Indian Wells and the Monte-Carlo Masters, the 22-time Grand Slam winner rolled back the years in Catalonia.
This was a routine win for Nadal in his first meeting against the Italian, who was playing above himself to remain in the contest.
After the opening three games went by way of serve, his early resistance was ended when the Spaniard claimed his first break to lead 3-1.
Cobolli claimed a hard-fought hold at 2-4 after surviving four Nadal break points, but only prolonged the inevitable, as Nadal broke through the Italian’s serve again to draw first blood at 6-2 after just 43 minutes of play.
The world No. 62 was then a set and a break down at 0-2, and the writing looked very much on the wall for the Italian.
However, he broke back immediately, but surrendered on his serve once again and failed to gain any sort of momentum in this triumphant return to Nadal’s favoured surface.
