Rafael Nadal has safely moved through to the third round of the Australian Open after beating the returning Tommy Haas 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.
Haas gave a great performance given how little tennis he has played because of various injuries over the last few years. Haas battled back from 0-4 down in the first set and held a break point chance to level at 5-5 before Nadal closed out the first set, and eventually the match.
After the match Nadal said he was happy with his knee which he injured getting up from a chair in his hotel over the weekend. Despite practicing earlier today without any bandaging, Nadal was taking no chances and again played with heavy taping on his knee.
Haas will be 34 years old in a few months.
“You cannot expect win easy against nobody, and especially against Tommy Haas. He’s fantastic player. That to say, happy to have this strong match early on.
I don’t know if it’s the perfect match, but I won in three sets. I started match playing fantastic, especially the first seven games.” – Rafael Nadal
“Early on usually in tournaments it’s a good time to catch him. Once he has more confidence further on, it’s really tough. Like I said, lack of matches from my part and lack of fitness right now, it needs to improve.” – Tommy Haas
