Abu Dhabi: World No 2 Rafael Nadal soaked up some very useful match practice with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Roger Federer to boost his preparation ahead of the Qatar Open, which starts tomorrow, and the Australian Open later in January.
Woefully short of practice after suffering a shoulder injury towards the end of the 2011 season, Nadal was much sharper on court yesterday against his arch-rival — the two meeting in a rematch of last year's final here.
Federer, who went down rather tamely on Friday to world No 1 Novak Djokovic, lost the first set in just 27 minutes before picking himself in the second against Nadal, who continued his experimenting with a heavier racquet.
"Today I had one more day on court and that was important," Nadal said.
"These two matches are important for me, just to stand on the court, to practise. When you play Federer, you push yourself, I think I did a few things better than yesterday."
Loss of control
When asked by Gulf News on how the heavier racquet was working, Nadal said, "I feel that my balls sometimes hit easy winners with this heavier racquet. But at the same time I am losing a bit of control.
"I sometimes did not have 100 per cent control of the racquet and sometimes the racquet had control of my hand. I needed a month to practise with this but I only had seven days, so it will take a bit longer."
Both Nadal and Federer leave for Doha for the Qatar Open today and the Swiss maestro said he was happy with his appearance in Abu Dhabi.
"I was feeling fine out there," he said.
"Great start to the new season, try a few new things, see where you are. Also see where the other guys are and obviously I can tell that Novak [Djokovic] and Rafa [Nadal] played really well.
"Not a surprise to me. I expected them to be in good shape this year and they just proved that to me this weekend.
"It was definitely closer than it was against Novak. I just never found the ranges on the return. The ball bounced a lot, it is quick. I just got one break in the second set today.
"I was also missing my half volleys — normally that is a big strength of mine. Overall it has been a good tournament as I could come out here and play some good matches, some good tennis, or try to at least."
