Knee crack gives Nadal a scare

When you play tennis for a living you need to have working knees.

If you don’t think that’s true you can check it out with Australian Open second seed Rafael Nadal, one of the true talents in the game. Nadal has won 10 Grand Slam titles and 36 other trophies including the 2008 Olympic gold medal. But he’s also had way too much trouble with tendinitis in both knees during his titanic career.

So you can imagine the dread he felt yesterday when he was doing nothing more than sitting in a chair when he heard his right knee crack.

“Yesterday afternoon happened the more strange thing ever happen to me,” revealed Nadal, after his 6-4 6-1 6-1 win over American qualifier Alex Kuznetsov on Monday. “I stand up. I felt the knee a little bit strange ... the knee stays with unbelievable pain ... I have no movement on the knee.”

Uh-oh! Would Nadal, the 2009 Australian Open, see his shot at winning a second title at Melbourne Park over before he even started the tournament this year?

The good news is that wasn’t the case. Tournament officials scrambled to organise an MRI for the 25-year-old Spaniard on Sunday and he came through with flying colours. Nothing wrong on those pictures – the knee was good to go. But that didn’t prevent Nadal from arriving on court looking something like the walking wounded with heavy  wrapping.

The even better news for Nadal is the heavy-duty treatment he endured on the knee on Sunday enabled him to make quick work of Kuznetsov in securing the first-round victory in 1 hour, 46 minutes on Monday. But it was clear from the scoreline that Nadal spent some of the first set feeling out his knee, much more so than feeling out his No.167 ranked opponent.

“I started the match with a little bit of scare at the beginning and nervous because I was really disappointed yesterday,” Nadal said. “But, you know, after the first 10 games that was scare, I started to play with normal conditions.

“The best thing is I felt the knee very well ... I was ready to play and I played a fantastic match.”

Truth be told – and no disrespect to Kuznetsov – but Nadal’s superiority over the American would probably have enabled him to stand tall with a win if he hopped on one leg. While Nadal’s a major force in the game, Kuznetsov’s a 24-year-old with a resume still waiting to be filled.

Kuznetsov’s now played in four Grand Slam events, winning one of five matches at the majors. He has a 0-12 record against players ranked in the top 100. However, it should be said that Kuznetsov was considered a highly promising prospect as a junior – he reached the 2004 Roland Garros junior boys’ final, but he hasn’t been able to find that form in the pros. 

The lopsided match saw Nadal hit 42 winners to only 16 for Kuznetsov. Nadal won 11 of 13 points at the net to eight of 22 for Kuznetsov. Nadal won all 12 of his service games, saving the two break-point opportunities he presented to Kuznetsov, while the American had his serve broken six times in 12 service games.

Now that Nadal’s knee held up well for the opening match, he seems to have little trepidation about how it will hold up for potentially six more matches here at Melbourne Park. Next up for Nadal is Tommy Haas, the dual German-American citizen who at 33 years and 9 months is the oldest player in the men’s draw. Haas defeated 19-year-old American qualifier Denis Kudla 7-6(5) 3-6 6-0 7-5. 

“I am really confident that having the worst feeling that I ever had in my knee yesterday and today was able to play,” Nadal said. “I have fantastic hope that going to happen the same for (the day) after tomorrow.”