Melbourne’s heat wave had relented by the time the 31-year-old Nadal walked on Margaret Court Arena, but the Spaniard was on fire as he battered the 28th seed into submission.
Browsing: Rafael Nadal
Twelve months ago, Nadal lost out in a dramatic final to Roger Federer, but the world number one dropped just three games on Monday as he secured a 6-1 6-1 6-1 win over his 37-year-old opponent.
Playing his first competitive match since pulling out of the ATP Tour Finals with knee trouble in November, the world number one showed no signs of early season rust.
He is chasing a seventh Australian Open title and started off well with a reassuring 6-1, 6-4 win at the Kooyong Classic on January 10.
The 31-year-old had already withdrawn from the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi and has now opted not to play in the Brisbane International in the first week of next month as he recovers from a knee injury.
The 12-time Grand Slam winner was forced to withdraw from his quarter-final clash with Thomas Berdych at Wimbledon.
Nadal, 31, was forced to pull out of the 2017 season-ending ATP Masters last month due to a knee injury after an exhausting season in which he won the French and US Opens
Nadal, who claimed the honour for the third time, made a sensational comeback from an injury-plagued 2016, winning a 10th French Open title and the U.S. Open.
As if clocking up a first victory over Rafael Nadal was not enough, Goffin continued breaking new ground by causing an upset against Federer to claim the biggest win of his career
Nadal announced last year he would sue Roselyne Bachelot after she made comments in a television interview suggesting he had taken performance enhancing drugs in 2012
“I‘m not ready to play… I fought a lot knowing it was my last match of the season,” the world number one, who had also quit midway through the Paris Masters tournament two weeks ago, told reporters following his 7-6(5) 6-7(4) 6-4 defeat by Goffin
Nadal told a news conference ahead of his quarter-final match against Serbian Filip Krajinovic that he was suffering from a right knee problem.
The Spaniard, who made sure he would end the year as world number one by reaching the third round, had to dig deep to see off Cuevas and set up a meeting with Serbian qualifier, Filip Krajinovic.
The Spaniard, who made sure he will end the year as world number one by reaching the third round, had to dig deep to see off Cuevas and set up a meeting with Serbian qualifier Filip Krajinovic
This is because the Spaniard who is currently the world number one is virtually guaranteed ending 2017 top of the pile.
The duo join world number one Rafa Nadal, Swiss ace Roger Federer, Germany’s Alexander Zverev and Austrian Dominic Thiem in the elite eight-man field, after Sam Querrey lost his first round match at the Vienna Open on Tuesday.
Federer beat Nadal in the Shanghai Masters and is now less than 2,000 points behind the Spaniard in the ATP rankings.
The 19-times grand slam winner claimed his 94th title and sixth this year with an emphatic defeat of Nadal in the Shanghai final and is hungry for a first ATP Finals win since 2011.
It was his 27th Masters title and 94th career titles
Nadal, runner-up in 2009, was pushed hard by the battling fourth seed, who put his booming forehand to good use but failed to derail the Spaniard.