Welcome back, Rafa

When was the last time the idyllic Pacific city of Vina del Mar garnered so much attention worldwide? And when was it that a mere second round match in an ATP 250 tournament caused a literal Twitter overload?

They had been unprecedented events so far but then, ‘unprecedented’ is the very word that you associate with the man called Rafael Nadal and his achievements! Expect him to stir up a never-seen-before frenzy in a coastal town which had struggled to sell its tickets for a tennis tournament last year. And voila! On Wednesday, the tournament recorded a full house in Nadal’s second round singles match! Yes, Rafael Nadal and his magnetic personality weave magic.

And why not? For the last seven months, tennis aficionados have waited with bated breath to see the return of the Mallorcan genius. Tennis surely had moved on – even his place in the world’s crème de la crème has been forfeited to his compatriot David Ferrer. Tennis has seen new winners at Grand Slams and Olympics.

But one can never deny the electric presence and the effervescent energy that Nadal brings to the court. Armed with a disarming smile, he is a ruthless assassin and brings a whole new dimension to the sport of tennis.

And this is what has been missed, sorely missed. For the past seven months, one question has been doing the rounds frequently – when will Rafa be back from his latest sabbatical? From Davis Cup, to the Abu Dhabi exhibition, to the Australian Open – the return had been postponed time and again until it was time for the sun burnt clay courts of Vina del Mar. No wonder fans and journalists had been flocking in hundreds to see how Rafa responds on the court in a singles match after 222 days!

Nadal’s first singles match since his shock second round defeat to Lukas Rosol in Wimbledon 2012 was divided into two parts. The first part was spent in testing the waters with doubts still hovering in his head. Rafa was facing a talented 6’3’’ Argentine Federico Delbonis (World No. 128) who was determined to make a story of his own. With his long arms, he generated enough pace and spin on his forehands to keep Nadal struggling to reach them. Soon, the 11-time Grand Slam champion was broken in his opening game.

Nadal looked doubtful, hesitant and in dire straits in his second service game as well, quickly going down 0-30. But this is where the serve clicked. A couple of aces later, Rafa was bang on the board at 1-2.

Champions like Rafa need a spark. On Delbonis’ serve, a running down-the-line forehand to earn a break back point provided it. That was pretty much what brought about the second part in Rafa’s match – dispelling the doubts he had so far.

The intensity on Rafa’s face said it all. He had found his groove again and the feel of waltzing on the clay was back. The fist pump and the screaming ‘Vamos’ just confirmed it. For the next few minutes, the man in mauve continued to rule the court under the bright Chilean sun.

To be honest, Rafa’s movement looked cautious and unsure many a time during the match. The frequent sliding was missing and Rafa, who wore a strapping under his left knee, didn’t even chase down a lot of the Delbonis’ dropshots – something one normally doesn’t see when the Nadal juggernaut is on. But that was probably because Rafa didn’t want to exert himself too much in his first match, given that his troublesome knees hadn’t healed 100 per cent.

His backhand too looked rusty, tentative and error-prone a lot in the first set. He looked a tad slow with the timing and pace of the backhand which he later on polished in the second set. But the serve and the forehands are what stood out. A curling down-the-line forehand to earn break point at 4-3 in the first set and a looping cross-court forehand to go up 5-3 – the sights that had been thoroughly missed, were back.

If Rafa hadn’t been retrieving balls from all over the planet on Wednesday, he made up for it by some delicate touches at the net. The first set was in the pocket in 50 minutes.

Nadal relentlessly continued to push Delbonis into committing errors in the second set and he duly obliged. A grunt, a thundering off forehand to break the Argentine and a little hop to follow it – delightful sights were on display right from the beginning of the set which brought joy to every Nadal fan and spelled doom for Delbonis.

And as the scoreboard showed 4-0 in Nadal’s favour, Delbonis started looking toothless and worn out, having been bludgeoned into submission in 10 of the past 11 games. He did however manage to win a couple of games, but that was all before Rafa slammed shut the match 6-3, 6-2 to prepare for his second battle in his singles comeback.

It was nowhere near the kind of match that Rafa would play in his prime but as his first competitive singles match after being away for months, he did well. Post-match Rafa summed it up well in his own words – “I’m happy to play a singles match after so long. I need days and time to get my game back, but so far, the feeling on court is great.”

That the feeling on court has been great is all that matters for him and his brigade of fans worldwide, and this is all what we have been anxiously waiting to hear for so long.

Welcome back, Rafa. You were missed.