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After Great Start, Nadal Returns from Injury at Madrid Open

Spanish tennis player Rafa Nadal (C) does the kick-off ahead the Spanish LaLiga match between Real Madrid and RCD Espanyol at Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, 30 April 2022. (EPA)
Spanish tennis player Rafa Nadal (C) does the kick-off ahead the Spanish LaLiga match between Real Madrid and RCD Espanyol at Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, 30 April 2022. (EPA)
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After Great Start, Nadal Returns from Injury at Madrid Open

Spanish tennis player Rafa Nadal (C) does the kick-off ahead the Spanish LaLiga match between Real Madrid and RCD Espanyol at Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, 30 April 2022. (EPA)
Spanish tennis player Rafa Nadal (C) does the kick-off ahead the Spanish LaLiga match between Real Madrid and RCD Espanyol at Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, 30 April 2022. (EPA)

Back home, Rafael Nadal looks to resume his season where he left off before being sidelined by an injury that halted a great start to his year.

Nadal will seek his fourth title of the season this week at the Madrid Open as he returns to action following a rib stress fracture that kept him out for about a month.

Nadal had won his first 20 matches of the year before getting injured in the semifinals at Indian Wells. He made it to the final but lost to Taylor Fritz for his first defeat. Until then, it had been the third-best start to a season on the ATP Tour since 1990.

Nadal won the Australian Open for a record 21st Grand Slam title and also won in Melbourne and Acapulco. He missed tournaments in Miami, Monte Carlo and Barcelona because of the injury.

The 35-year-old Spaniard will be trying to win the Madrid title for the sixth time, and first since 2017, though he said last week he would have "few chances" of winning after arriving "with minimum preparation."

He will debut against either Miomir Kecmanovic or Alexander Bublik.

Nadal could face a semifinal against top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who has been trying to regain his best form after a slow start to the season.

A three-time winner in Madrid, Djokovic was coming off a runner-up finish in Serbia, where he won three three-set matches before losing the final to Andrey Rublev.

His first match in Madrid will be against either Gael Monfils or Carlos Gimeno Valero.

Another home-crowd favorite in Madrid will be young sensation Carlos Alcaraz, who made it to No. 9 in the world after titles in Rio de Janeiro, Miami and Barcelona.

The 18-year-old, touted by many as Nadal’s heir, could face his idol in the quarterfinals. He lost to Nadal in the tournament’s second round last year.

Alcaraz will begin his campaign against Nikoloz Basilashvili or Fabio Fognini.

Former world No. 1 Andy Murray, a two-time winner in Madrid, will be back at the clay-court tournament for the first time since 2017. He will face a marquee first-round match against former world No. 3 Dominic Thiem, a two-time finalist in the Spanish capital.

Thiem has been recovering from a wrist injury that sidelined him for eight months.

The 34-year-old Murray had earlier said he would skip the clay season but ended up accepting the wildcard invitation to play in Spain.

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'Sarcastic' Hamilton Shows Frustration as Ferrari Struggle Again

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc enjoyed a fun ride in Lego F1 cars before enduring more frustration in the Miami Grand Prix. Mark Thompson / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc enjoyed a fun ride in Lego F1 cars before enduring more frustration in the Miami Grand Prix. Mark Thompson / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
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'Sarcastic' Hamilton Shows Frustration as Ferrari Struggle Again

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc enjoyed a fun ride in Lego F1 cars before enduring more frustration in the Miami Grand Prix. Mark Thompson / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc enjoyed a fun ride in Lego F1 cars before enduring more frustration in the Miami Grand Prix. Mark Thompson / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP

Lewis Hamilton showed his frustration with his Ferrari team's tactics at the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday as the Scuderia once again struggled to compete.

Hamilton finished eighth with team-mate Charles Leclerc seventh as Ferarri remain with just one podium finish so far this season -- Leclerc's third place in Jeddah, said AFP.

A fired-up Hamilton fired off several barbed comments over the team radio after asking for Leclerc to allow him to pass.

The Briton had a spell in the race when he appeared to be driving quicker than Leclerc and clearly felt he had a better chance of closing ground on Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli.

"I'm just burning up my tyres behind him. You want me to just sit here the whole race?" asked Hamilton.

When he was finally allowed to pass, three laps later, Hamilton responded: "This is not good teamwork, that's all I'm going to say...in China I got out of the way."

He was critical of the time it took the team to make their decisions saying: "Have a tea break while you're at it, come on!"

When the seven-time world champion was given permission to move ahead of Leclerc, he was unable to make progress and with the roles reversed and the Monte Carlo driver looking faster behind him, the team switched their positions back.

Hamilton was then informed that Carlos Sainz of Williams, the former Ferrari driver, was just 1.4 seconds behind him and responded "You want me to let him past as well?"

After the race Hamilton said he needed to raise the issues.

"I lost a lot of time behind Charles and in that moment I was thinking let’s make a concise decision and not waste time. I’m sure people didn’t like certain topics but you’ve got to understand it’s frustrating, people say way worse things than I say, it was more sarcastic than anything.

"I’m not frustrated now but we will work internally and we keep pushing," he said.

Frederic Vasseur, the Ferrari team principal, defended the thinking behind the moves and added "I can understand the frustration of the guys in the car but in the end it was well executed."

Leclerc opted for diplomacy.

"It’s a difficult situation, I think I will unfortunately go for the boring answer and I’m not going to comment too much here," he said.

"It’s obvious today is not the way we want to manage a race, we will discuss internally to make better decisions," Leclerc said. "There’s no bad feelings for Lewis, absolutely not, it’s just as a team we need to do better and today was a proof of that. For the rest I don’t want to speak more into the details."