• Rafael Nadal won his opening match at the Barcelona Open.
• This was his comeback after injury and only his second tournament.
• Nadal will face a tougher opponent next – the in-form Alex De Minaur.

Rafael Nadal, the tennis legend, made a victorious comeback to the tennis court, defeating Flavio Cobolli in the opening round of the Barcelona Open.

At 37 years old, this was only his second tournament in 15 months, following a hip muscle injury during his return event in Brisbane in January.

Nadal, who has won the tournament 12 times, only confirmed his participation on Monday. Despite this, he showed no signs of rustiness as he easily overcame the 21-year-old Italian Cobolli with a score of 6-2, 6-3. This was his first clay court match since winning his 14th French Open title in 2022.

As he entered the court named after him, Nadal was greeted like a hero. Despite a few misdirected forehands at the beginning, the former world number one proved too strong for Cobolli.

Cobolli, understandably nervous, made several mistakes, which greatly affected the final score. However, a significant reason for this was the pressure from the other side of the court.

Nadal, who is expected to retire sometime this season, had a minor setback when he lost his serve for the first time in the third game of the second set. However, having already broken Cobolli’s serve, he quickly regained his lead.

Nadal displayed some classic forehands towards the end of the match and sealed the victory when Cobolli hit a final backhand into the net, prompting Nadal to pump his fist in celebration.

Nadal, the crowd’s favourite, will face a real challenge in his next match against the in-form fourth seed Alex De Minaur.

In other news, second seed Andrey Rublev smashed his racket in frustration following a 6-4 7-6 (6) loss to Brandon Nakashima, continuing his streak of poor performance.

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