United Cup: Rafael Nadal loses to Alex de Minaur, starts 2023 with back-to-back defeats

Rafael Nadal hasn’t had the best of starts to 2023 by any stretch of the imagination. The Spaniard has lost both his matches.

In the United Cup and his form on hard court ahead of the Australian Open has come under the scanner.

On Monday, January 2, Nadal lost to Australia’s Alex De Minaur in a thrilling three-setter at Ken Rosewell Arena. Nadal lost the match 6-3, 1-6, 5-7 as Australia took a 1-0 lead over Spain. Nadal, also the winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles, won the first set and looked good to make amends after losing to Cameron Norrie earlier this week.

However, de Minaur had other ideas as he broke Nadal’s serve four times in the second set to push the legend on the back-foot. The third set was a closely-fought affair as the score-line once read 5-5. However, de Minaur put his best foot forward and earned as many as three break points.

Once he broke Nadal’s serve and made it 6-5 in the last set, de Minaur only had to hold his serve to go past the finish line and he did it without having to break a sweat.

Nadal, who will be looking to defend his Australian Open men’s singles title, was poor on his second serves, managing only 44 percent of points from them.

It goes without saying that Nadal has looked a lot of sorts before his first Grand Slam of the year, which is scheduled to take place from January 16 to January 29.