Nadal Mends Fences With Federer and Overcomes Knee Problem to Win

Nadal Mends Fences With Federer and Overcomes Knee Problem to Win

MELBOURNE, Australia — Perhaps Roger Federer had a point about the benefits of keeping negative thoughts out of the public domain. Only a day after Rafael Nadal deviated from a long-established pattern and ripped his friendly rival Federer at a news conference, Nadal sheepishly said that he regretted the outburst, still valued their connection and should have made his comments to Federer in private.

“These things can stay — must stay — in the locker room,” Nadal said Monday. “I always had fantastic relationship with Roger. I still have fantastic relationship with Roger. That’s what should be, in my opinion. Don’t create crazy histories about what I said yesterday, please.”

Mending fences with Federer was hardly Nadal’s only concern on opening day at the Australian Open.

Nadal, seeded second, won his first-round match over the American qualifier Alex Kuznetsov, 6-4, 6-1, 6-1, but did so with his right knee tightly strapped after what he said was “the strangest” experience of his 25-year-old life.

On Sunday, Nadal said he was sitting in a chair in his Melbourne hotel when he heard a crack in the knee. He got up, manipulated the joint and said he felt a jolt of “unbelievable pain” as his knee locked.

“You can have an injury playing an aggressive movement, but sitting on a chair you cannot have injury,” said Nadal, who has had plenty of midtournament aches and problems, but never one quite like this.

“I have a hard afternoon,” he said. “I did all the tests, came here for ultrasound, went to hospital for M.R.I.”

Nadal said that although he was relieved when the M.R.I. revealed no structural damage, he had still been uncertain if he could play on Monday against Kuznetsov.

“We did a lot of work during the evening, at the end of the night, with a lot of pain,” he said. “But I finally really had the full movement of the knee.”

After extensive physiotherapy and anti-inflammatory treatments on Monday, he earned a second-round date with Tommy Haas, the German veteran who knows plenty about playing in pain as he continues his latest comeback at 33.

Federer, now 30, has had his issues lately, too. The chronic back pain that has nagged at him throughout his career returned this month during the tournament in Doha, and he retired before the semifinals. But after resuming full practice sessions last week in Melbourne, Federer did not appear constrained as he defeated the Russian qualifier Alexander Kudryavtsev, 7-5, 6-2, 6-2, in Monday’s night session.

“Honestly, I wasn’t afraid,” he said. “I felt I could serve at full strength. I didn’t feel I held back or played differently than usual.”

As for Nadal’s unusual outburst, Federer did not lash out in return. The kerfuffle began when Nadal was informed that Federer had said in a recent interview that he felt players sometimes hurt the tour by speaking negatively about the sport instead of keeping the complaints in house and working behind the scenes for change. Federer did not name Nadal directly, but Nadal took umbrage, nonetheless, and criticized Federer for playing the “gentleman” and staying safely above the fray while others “burned” themselves by speaking out and trying to raise awareness of the need for changes to the tour.

Federer attributed Nadal’s comment to pent-up frustration at the political tussles in the ATP in recent months as the organization searched for a new chief executive and debated changes to the ranking system. Federer, the president of the ATP player council, and Nadal, the vice president, have disagreed at times, with Federer often prevailing. But Federer said they had had three one-on-one discussions in the past two months in an attempt to bridge the divide.

“We can’t always agree on everything,” Federer said. “So far it’s always been no problem, really. Back in the day, he used to say, ‘Whatever Roger decides, I’m fine with.’ Today he’s much more grown up. He has a strong opinion himself, which I think is great.

“It’s what we need, especially on the council. It’s been nice working with him. That he has a strong opinion also creates sometimes good arguments about where you want to move the sport forward to.”

There is much to debate, with renewed tension between the men’s tour and the four Grand Slam tournaments over distribution of revenue. It is an old complaint, but the players are arguing with increasing vehemence that they deserve a much bigger cut than the 11 to 13 percent that they estimate they are receiving now in prize money.

Federer, who supports an increase, said that he generally preferred to keep his arguments out of the public domain but that did not mean he was not working for change for the players. Though his relationship with Nadal is clearly facing new pressures, Federer said that Nadal “was a friend like before and for me nothing has changed.”

“I would have dinner with him tomorrow if he calls me or I call him,” he said.

In first-round matches Tuesday, Novak Djokovic started his defense of the men’s title with a 6-2, 6-0, 6-0 win over Paolo Lorenzi of Italy. Djokovic, 24, who won three of the four Grand Slam titles last year, is the top seed. The No. 5 seed, David Ferrer of Spain, beat Rui Machado of Portugal, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.

The women’s No. 2 seed, Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, and Maria Sharapova, No. 4, both advanced.