‘Never, ever write him off’ – Rafael Nadal can still be dangerous at US Open despite injury – Barbara Schett

Rafael Nadal cannot be written off at the US Open despite going out in his first match in Cincinnati, says Eurosport expert Barbara Schett.

Schett believes recovering from an abdominal injury can still greatly impact your on-court performance and that he can be “dangerous again” at Flushing Meadows.

“Don’t forget that was his first match since that injury,” she told Eurosport.

“The match is always different from practice. And whoever had an abdominal injury and a tear on the abdominal muscles knows how it feels. You have to be extremely cautious. You’re worried that you’re going to reinjure it again.

“And I think that’s what we’ve seen on Wednesday. When he played against Coric, he was a little bit uncertain how the body was going to hold up. And for sure he’s going to feel better and better.

“If there’s no damage to the abdominal muscle, then he still has a week and a half to improve his health, to improve the trust also that he can extend and he can’t bend on the serve because that’s the trickiest shot, the serve and the smash.

“When that is the case, Rafa Nadal certainly can be dangerous again at the US Open. I mean, he’s so fired up at every single Grand Slam.

“We’ve seen this year playing the best tennis of his life. You can never, ever write him off.”

Schett thought Nadal looked rusty against Coric but says he should not face criticism for his performance so soon after injury.

She said: “I think we just have to give Rafa Nadal a bit of a break. I think what’s really important for him now is to assess that injury he’s had, because he did feel it a little bit. He said during the match, we also saw that there was a very low first serve percentage of 55%. He also committed a lot of double faults. It wasn’t pain, what he was feeling, but he was feeling that scar.

“If everything is fine, because you don’t want to muck around with a stomach muscle injury, especially when you have a tear there.

“The important thing for him is just to get the green light from the doctors and then go from there. But Rafa Nadal at the moment, I think he lives in the moment. He goes one day at a time and then takes his decisions.

“One thing is for sure, when he’s on the court, he will always try everything. Against Borna, unfortunately for him, it wasn’t enough.”