Nadal Left Shaking His Head After Australian Open Exit

Rafael Nadal was left shaking his head on Tuesday at the Australian Open after he suffered just his second first-round exit at a Grand Slam championship.

The 2009 champion and fifth seed seed insisted he felt competitive during his five-set loss to fellow Spaniard and left-hander Fernando Verdasco, but could not explain how he had failed to convert practice court form into a match situation.

"The match is a tough one to lose for me obviously," said Nadal. "It's not like last year, when I arrived here playing bad and not feeling ready for it. This year was a completely different story. I have been playing and practising great and working so much. It is tough when you work so much and arrived at a very important event and you're going out too early.

"I know I did everything that I could to be ready for it. It was not my day. There is no more things to do other than keep practising hard and keep practising the same way that I have been doing for the past four, five months."

Nadal led 2-0 in the fifth set, but Verdasco reeled off six games for a 7-6(6), 4-6, 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 in four hours and 41 minutes.

"In terms of being competitive, I was competitive," said Nadal, who is now 14-3 lifetime against Verdasco. "In terms of creating damage to the opponent with my forehand, I didn't. So I was hitting forehands, and he was able to keep hitting winners. [It] cannot happen when I am hitting my forehand... That was the biggest issue for me today.

"I was not enough aggressive with my forehand during the whole match. I didn't feel it. I tried. I fought. I was ready to do it, [but] I didn't... [But] I don't know [one] hundred per cent the reason, to be honest."

The only other time that Nadal had lost in the first round of a Grand Slam champion was at Wimbledon 2013, when he lost to Belgium's Steve Darcis.

"I play majors the same way I play other tournaments all the year," said Nadal. "All my life, I have played every tournament by putting all that I have there... I try my best in every single match of the year. That's it. Sometimes you have success; sometimes you do not. Today it is obvious that I didn't.

"He played so aggressive, and the serve was huge for him today. I just [want to] congratulate him because he deserved [it], and I wish him all the best for the rest of the tournament."

Seven years ago, Verdasco arrived in Melbourne having spent the off-season working with Andre Agassi's former trainer, Gil Reyes. In the best shape of his life, he swept into the Australian Open semi-finals, but was unable to get the better of Nadal in a five-set loss. At five hours and 14 minutes, it was the second-longest match (in terms of duration) in the championship's history.