Nadal destroys Wawrinka on return to grass ahead of Wimbledon
ATP
After three years away from the grass courts, Rafael Nadal will play at Wimbledon in 2022, and ahead of the tournament, he started his preparations in Hurlingham.
Only recently, Nadal delighted his fans by announcing that he would compete at Wimbledon. His participation was in doubt after he won this year's French Open through plenty of pain, having to use injections to numb his foot.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion started his preparations for the grass-court major at the Tennis Classic at the Hurlingham Club. In his first match, he took on his old rival Stan Wawrinka.
Both players were looking to fine-tune their form before the third Grand Slam of the season, but it appeared that one was more ready than the other.
Historically, both Nadal and Wawrinka had the weakest results out of all Grand Slam tournaments at the All England Club. Moreover, after dozens of previous meetings, this was their first on grass, and the Spaniard hasn't lost to Wawrinka since 2015.
Nadal made sure that he wouldn't end his streak at the Hurnlingham Club as he was the dominant player since the start of the match. He was the first player to break in the first set and led 3-0 early in the match.
Later, the ATP World No. 4 player added another break and was serving for the set at 5-1. However, he got broken back and needed to break his Swiss opponent once more to win the first set 6-2.
In the second set, it was Wawrinka who had the first three breakpoints. Yet, he couldn't take advantage of that and quickly found himself down a break again.
Despite breaking back, Nadal stepped up his game once more to win the match 6-2, 6-3 in an hour. He will play one more match at the Hurlingham Club in two days.
