• Masters 1,000 Rafa Nadal returns with defeat in Cincinnati

  • WTA Paula Badosa crashes against Tomljanovic

Disappointed by his premature elimination in

Cincinnati

against the Croatian

Borna Coric

,

Rafa Nadal

assured that "'he was not ready to win" after a month and a half off and acknowledged that the abdominal injury suffered at Wimbledon still conditions his game and It prevents you from competing 100 percent.

"Obviously I didn't play my best match. It's something that can happen, historically this tournament is difficult for me. I was coming back after a difficult period. But this is something easy to accept. It's easy to say 'congratulations to Borna', it was just better." , assured the Spaniard at the press conference after the meeting at the LindnerFamily Tennis Center.

Nadal assured that it is "complicated" to get "positive readings" after falling 7-6 (9), 4-6 and 6-4 against Coric.

"I need to improve and I need to train. I have to subtract better. I need track days, that's the reality," he assured.

"

Many times I did positive things coming back from injuries, but in this case it's obvious that he wasn't ready to win today

", said the Spaniard.

"A difficult injury to manage"

Despite the difficulties, Nadal had managed to equalize the match in the second set and also had a 0-30 with Coric on serve in the third set that could change the history of the match.

"If you don't know how to take advantage of those occasions, you lose. But I know the way, the most important thing is to be healthy.

I come from an injury that is difficult to manage. With abdominal problems you never know when you have recovered one hundred percent

," he said.

He highlighted his gratitude to the organization of the tournament and to the fans who encouraged him on the central court, although he considered that "for some reason he never" had "the best feelings" in this event.

"It's hard to analyze the match. When you have a scar, the line is very small. When the scar doesn't have much flexibility, you have to be careful every moment," he said.

"I will probably do some tests to make sure everything is fine. But I trained much better than I played today. Nothing happens," he

insisted.

Nadal's next challenge will be the US Open, which begins on August 29 and is a tournament in which he has "fantastic memories".

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more

  • tennis

  • Rafael Nadal