Rafael Nadal experienced a loss in doubles when he made his return to the court after being out for almost a year.
The 22-time winner of the grand slam, has been absent since experiencing a hip injury in a second-round match at the Australian Open in January. Nadal had surgery in June and made his comeback at the Brisbane International on Sunday with his partner Marc López, with whom he won Olympic gold at Rio 2016.
The pair fell to a 6-4, 6-4 defeat to the Australian duo of Max Purcell and Jordan Thompson, but there were some promising signs from the 37-year-old. “It’s great to see Rafa back,” said Thompson. “I’ve been on the receiving end a couple of times in singles, so it’s nice to get him back on a doubles court.”
Rafael Nadal, 37, received a warm reception from fans at the tournament. They showed their support by holding up Spanish flags and messages. The loudest cheers were for his signature whipped shots and a strong crosscourt backhand winner in the first set. In his upcoming singles match on Tuesday against qualifier Dominic Thiem, Nadal can expect a similar reception. He has a 9-6 record against Thiem and has defeated him in the 2018 and 2019 French Open finals.
Naomi Osaka, a previous top-ranked female tennis player, will be returning from her maternity leave on Monday to face Tamara Korpatsch. This will be the 26-year-old’s first tournament since September 2022, as she took time off after giving birth to her daughter, Shai, in July.
Sloane Stephens, a previous winner of the US Open, had a successful start to her campaign as she defeated Katerina Siniakova 7-5 6-3. Meanwhile, Camila Giorgi had a close call but managed to advance to the next round by defeating Peyton Stearns 5-7 6-2 6-3. In addition, 16-year-old Russian player Mirra Andreeva also secured her spot in the second round with a 6-2 6-3 victory over Diana Shnaider.
Boulter achieves greatest victory of her career in Great Britain’s loss.
In Perth, despite Katie Boulter’s impressive victory over world No. 5 Jessica Pegula, Great Britain lost 2-1 to the United States at the United Cup.
The newest iteration of the global team event features a reduced format, consisting of two singles matches and one doubles match per tie. Despite being ranked 51 spots lower, British player Boulter defeated American opponent Pegula 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 in the initial match on Sunday. However, losses by Cameron Norrie in the following match, as well as Boulter and Neal Skupski in the mixed doubles, resulted in the defending champions coming out victorious.
If Britain had won, they would have advanced to the quarter-finals. However, there is still a possibility for any of the three teams in Group C to move forward before the last match between the US and Australia on Monday.
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Pegula appeared to be on track to start the Americans’ attempt to defend their title with a win, winning six consecutive games to take the first set and lead 3-0. However, Boulter fought back and achieved her first victory over a top-five opponent in seven attempts. Her previous best was defeating then-world No. 7, Karolina Pliskova, at Eastbourne and Wimbledon in 2022.
She expressed, “I feel like my performance was strong. It gives me a lot of confidence, especially since I put in the work during pre-season. I am very pleased with it and feel like a completely different player compared to a year ago. My goal was to achieve some wins based on my rankings.”
Norrie was defeated by Taylor Fritz in the second singles match, resulting in a tiebreaker for the best-of-three match. Fritz emerged victorious with a score of 7-6 (5), 6-4, thanks in part to his 14 aces compared to Norrie’s three. The Briton struggled with his first serve, only managing to land 54% of them.
Boulter and Skupski began well in their match against Pegula and Fritz in the mixed doubles, but the American duo ultimately won 1-6, 7-6 (4), 10-7.
