The First Serve podcast: How bad is Nadal’s knee?

Published by Bede Briscomb

Rafael Nadal's right knee looked proppy in his match against Roger Federer in Shanghai; Getty Images

This week on the First Serve podcast panellists Brett Phillips, Val Febbo, Paul Aitken and Sean Munaweera invited The Australian’s Courtney Walsh on the show to wrap up the results from Shanghai with Roger Federer defeating an exhausted Rafael Nadal in straight sets. Walsh also expressed concerns about Nadal’s health heading into the Paris Masters and ATP Finals in London.

“The conditions suited [Federer] him. That indoor court is super slick and that’s what he loves. But you still have to deliver and he was playing against a guy who had won 16 in a row on hard courts so the manner in which he did it was very impressive.

“I think [Nadal’s knee] it’s an issue. He was limping a little bit when he walked into the press room. He’s had a history of knee problems and hard courts exacerbate it. He was asked about his next tournament in Basel and was non-committal.”

Australian tennis writer David Packman also joined the show to discuss the positive performances of Daria Gavrilova, who was a finalist in Hong Kong, and John Peers, who won the men’s doubles championship in Shanghai alongside Henri Kontinen.

Listen to the full podcast here:

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