Rafael Nadal's Back is Healing and His Serve is Improving at Australian Open

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Rafael Nadal's Back is Healing and His Serve is Improving at Australian Open

By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday February 14, 2021

After his straight-sets win over Cameron Norrie on Day 6 Rafael Nadal told reporters that his back is starting to feel a lot better, and he’s able to do more on his serve on the court as a result.

“Today is better,” Nadal said. “First day I feel an improvement, and that's the most important thing for me today, more than any other thing.”

Nadal said that he had altered his service motion to compensate for his ailing back for two weeks, but indicated that he has turned a corner as of last night. He’s feeling much less pain and back to serving the way he wants and he thinks he can improve a great deal in the next few days.

“I was not serving my normal serve for the last 15 days,” Nadal said after taking out Norrie 7-5, 6-2, 7-5 on Saturday night in Melbourne. “Today is the first day that I started to serve again my normal serve. But yesterday I didn't practice, so today just warming up with the new, with the normal movement. So of course I didn't serve bad, but I can do better, I think. And I'm looking forward to do it better, no?

“Have been an important victory for me. The biggest victory is the back is better for the first day. So that's the most important thing.”

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