Rafael Nadal will launch a new attempt Tuesday in his quest to recapture form as he opens his campaign in Hamburg, a tournament he has not competed in since 2008.
Nadal, now ranked No10 in the world, has not played a clay tournament post-Wimbledon since 2007.
But the Spaniard is hoping he can regain some of his confidence with a successful showing on the clay courts of the ATP 500-level tournament this week before shifting his focus to the North American hard court swing leading up to next month’s US Open.
“I haven’t been here since 2008 (when it was a Masters 1000 played in May). It’s obvious that normally this time of the summer I take it to relax and to practise a little bit for the hard court season,” said Nadal.
“This year the situation is obviously a little bit different. I’ve been losing more than in the last 10 or 11 years. So I feel my body has asked me to be playing and I’m here.”
The top-seeded Spaniard faces a tricky opener on Tuesday against his countryman and fellow lefty Fernando Verdasco, who may have a 2-13 losing record against Nadal but has triumphed in their two most recent encounters in Miami last March and Madrid three years ago. Nadal has won just two titles this season at the lower-tiered events in Stuttgart and Buenos Aires, and will be playing his first singles match today since crashing out of the second round at Wimbledon at the hands of Germany’s Dustin Brown.
Asked how long it took him to get over that defeat to Brown, Nadal said: “It doesn’t matter how long it took me, at the end of the day it wasn’t an easy loss for me.
“A tough one because I felt that I did the right things to be ready for it, playing Stuttgart and Queen’s and having a positive week of preparation there before the tournament started. But I played bad in that match, I was not competitive enough to get through and I lost.
“The last six months I have been losing a little bit more than what I have been used to the last 11 years. So I just accept the new situations with the right attitude and keep working to try to be at a good level again. It’s been a tough one, obviously, but life continues.”
