Rafael Nadal is back home in Mallorca working on his tennis, and he apparently lost to Richard Gasquet in their practice match.
Nadal is nearing a return to tennis in Brisbane in about ten days. He's been working hard since the start of December, holding a sort of training camp in Kuwait where he got used to playing outdoors again.
During his stay in the Middle East, Nadal took on rising star Arthur Fils and won a practice set against him, indicating a good level. That was confirmed by Fils after that, so naturally, fans got really excited.
He's back home in Europe now for the holidays, after which he'll embark on the long flight to Australia, and it's still all tennis for Nadal.
He practices with fellow veteran Richard Gasquet and, according to reports, lost two out of the three practice sets they played. Before anybody starts panicking, let's remember that this was indoors, which isn't the strongest surface for Nadal as opposed to Gasquet, who quite loves indoors.
Let's also remember that Nadal won one of those, which is solid, and the French veteran was also complimentary of Nadal's level. As Gasquet explained, the Spaniard would be competitive immediately and win matches, though he fell short of proclaiming anything spectacular.
There isn't much time for Nadal to smooth out some of the things that are not working because he will find himself on a tennis court pretty soon. He should be good enough to win a few matches before the Australian Open main draw, but we don't know till we see him in action.
That is coming up after January 1st at the Brisbane International, with his next event being the Australian Open. Exciting times are coming, so stick with us so you don't miss any of that.
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