Rafael Nadal was supposed to come back to play in time for the Australian Open.  But he claimed he had the flu or some similar disease, and so without the capability of making a serious run at the Australian Open, he chose to skip it, and make a more low-key return to the tour.

Vina del Mar is a fairly small tournament, an ATP 250 event, that is part of the “golden swing” through South and Central America.  This is the one time the tennis tour heads to South America or basically any place south of the US in this hemisphere.  Mostly, Spaniards and devoted clay courters that don’t mind heading to South America head here.  A few years ago, David Ferrer began his ascendancy to the top 5 by playing well in these tournaments.  Nicolas Almagro and Juan Carlos Ferrero frequently play.

However, few of the big guns ever play.  Roger Federer hadn’t played in the continent since before he was in the main tour.  Rafa hadn’t played since about 2005.  Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Tomas Berdych–players with more of a fast court preference rarely made this trip preferring to stay in Europe instead.

But Rafa has always complained about his knees and how hard courts are bad for them.  Rafa plays maybe 5 hard court tournaments by July, and those 5 seem to be enough to play havoc on his knees (one wonders if his excessive clay court play is not to blame).  In particular, he typically plays an Aussie warmup (Doha), the Australian Open, a tournament like Rotterdam, then Indian Wells and Miami.  This year, he’s likely only to play Indian Wells and Miami.

His return to South America to a country whose best players have retired has been something of a celebrity event.  Chile hasn’t had this much excitement since Fernando Gonzalez won silver in the 2008 Olympics.

And, he had a pretty nice draw.  To be fair, Nadal rarely returns to tour if he doesn’t think he can win a few rounds.  He faced Argentine qualifier Frederico Delbonis in the second round.  That’s because, being the top seed, he gets a bye (several top seeds get a first round bye).  This was a comfortable 63 62 win despite an early break.  Nadal is also entered in doubles where he and Juan Monaco won their first round.