Rafael Nadal takes on Mardy Fish on Sunday evening in his opening match at the 2011 ATP World Tour Finals.
Everyone is intrigued to see how Nadal will fare after well over a month out of action, nursing an injury. Nadal last competed at the Shanghai Masters and the hard hitting Fish will be sure to test for any rust with his adventurous, crowd pleasing game, looking to serve big and get forward as much as possible.
"The loss in Shanghai was difficult for me because I felt I was in a positive moment, I had an opportunity to play a good tournament," Nadal said. "That hurt me a little bit and I felt I needed to stop, to practise a little bit and to recover physically and mentally. For me to finish the season with a good feeling is important, it's positive and I'm working for that. I'm feeling good, I feel happy about how I practised, I'm happy about how my mind is working, working hard everyday and with enough motivation."
Fish has also struggled with injury in the latter part of the season and it'll be interesting to see how sharp he is this week. He's been gunning for London since the start of the summer hard court swing but does he really believe he can contend for the title ?
Nadal does lead their head-to-head 7-1 but at least Fish has the confidence of knowing that he beat the Spaniard pretty comfortably in Cincinnati in the summer. He had chances in their last match too, in the Tokyo semi-finals last month, before losing 7-5, 6-1.
Prediction: Nadal to fall behind early on but then fight back and win in three.
