"Very few positives" - Nadal after loss to Coric

Injury forced Nadal to wait until Cincinnati to return to tennis and he was eliminated in round one by Borna Coric.

The world's No. 3 is competing in Cincinnati for the first time in five years and he had a shot to win this match but failed to do so. Coric produced a solid level which was enough to win but Nadal was left with very few positives from this one.

"I didn’t play my best match. It’s Something that can happen. Historically this tournament has been difficult for me", admitted Nadal in the post-match conference adding: "For some weird reason at this tournament I never had the best feelings. On the other hand, I felt very welcome here all the time.”

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The match featured an unusual amount of missed chances by Nadal who usually pounces on them. The Spaniard pointed out that his loss was due to him not being ready to win the match and that's a negative:

“A lot of times coming back from injuries I have done positive things, but in this particular case, it’s obvious that I was not ready enough to win the match. You lose. You move forward. I know the way."

"The main thing for me is to stay healthy. It has been a difficult injury to manage, to be honest. The last month and a half haven’t been easy because having a tear on the abdominal, you don’t know when it is 100%. So that affects a little bit in terms of not sure if you are able to try your best in every serve.”“I need (to take things) step by step,” concluded Nadal.

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