Australian Open defending champion Rafael Nadal was left confused as his racquet went missing during the opening encounter against Britain's Jack Draper on January 16. Apparently, the ballboy took the racquet Nadal wanted to use instead of the one he had asked him to take to the stringer for repair.
The incident took place during the first set. After searching for his racquet, Nadal told the umpire during the changeover, "I need the racquet back. I need the dampener and everything. The ball boy took my racquet.”
When the bizarre incident took place, the Spaniard was leading the first set by 4-3. The southpaw looked rusty in the first round clash at Rod Laver Arena. Struggling against Draper, Nadal was outclassed by the 21-year-old in the second set as he lost by 2-7. However, the cramps got the better of Draper in the heat and it had a massive impact on his game.
Later, the experience of Nadal came into play against the British youngster as the 36-year-old won the game by 7-5 2-6 6-4 6-1. He made as many as 46 unforced errors, same as Draper. Also, he had the same double faults as his counterpart.
“If we put in perspective the situation that I went through the last six months,” Nadal said, “I think it was a very positive start.”
However, a performance like this was expected from Nadal who had registered six losses from seven outings before coming in to defend his Australian Open title.
This was Nadal's 1,068th career win which helped him level with America's Ivan Lendl. The no.1 seed is only behind Jimmy Connors (1,274) and Roger Federer (1,251) on the list of most victories in the Open Era.
He will now take on United States' Mackenzie McDonald in the second round. McDonald beat Brandon Nakashima in the first round.
