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Rafael Nadal opened his tennis season with a

7-5, 6-4

victory over

Dominic Thiem

in an exhibition match played at the Memorial Drive Tennis Club in Adelaide, a city in which both have completed their quarantine prior to the ATP Cup and to the Australian Open.

The Spanish, world number two, and the Austrian, number three, were on the track for

an hour and 23 minutes

in which they were in good shape and made the inaccuracies typical of a start to the season as atypical as this 2021 .

The game, of a charitable nature, was played with

the stands full of spectators

, who neither wore a mask nor kept any safety distance.

The two players did jump onto the court with face masks, which they took off when they reached their chair.

The court was covered, but open on the sides.

This Friday marks precisely one year since Thiem beat Nadal in the

quarterfinals of the Australian Open in 2020

by 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 4-6 and 7-6 (6).

The Austrian then reached the final, in which he fell to Serbian Novak Djokovic, who thus replaced Nadal at world number one.

A year later, the result was the opposite, with Nadal one step ahead in the decisive moments.

After starting the confrontation with quick points and frequent approaches to the net by both players, the rallies were lengthened until reminding of the tense exchanges of so many of their official matches.

Thiem had a

breaking point

in the eighth game, in which Nadal missed several cross passes by millimeters, but to no avail.

Yes, the Spaniard took advantage of his first break opportunity to go ahead 6-5 and then confirm the set with his serve on his first match ball, after his rival wasted another chance to break him.

In the second quarter Nadal took the initiative more clearly, with two blank games with his serve, until he took Thiem's ​​serve for 5-4 and confirmed again without difficulty.

He won the game at the net with an undeniable volley.

In the same tournament Novak Djokovik had made his debut a few hours before, although he only played one set due to the discomfort caused by blisters on his right hand.

His compatriot Filip Krajinovic won a set 6-3 against Italian Jannik Sinner and then Djokovic joined the game and prevailed in the second set by the same score against the young transalpine player.

Nadal will participate with the Spanish team in the ATP Cup from February 2 to 6, and then in the Australian Open, from 8 to 21 of the same month.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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