Australian Open Exit: I'm Mentally Destroyed, Says Rafael Nadal

Having had a cruel end in the second round of the Australian Open, Rafael Nadal has admitted that he is mentally destroyed.

American Mackenzie McDonald handed the 22-time Grand Slam champion a 6-4 6-4 7-5 defeat at Melbourne Park.

The Spaniard struggled with what appeared to be a hip problem which prompted a medical timeout towards the end of the second set before continuing.

"I just can't say that I am not destroyed mentally at this time, because I will be lying," a despondent Nadal said during his post-match news conference,

"I really hope that it doesn't put me out of the court for a long time.

"It's not only the recovery. It's all the amount of work that you need to put together to come back at a decent level.

"I went through this process too many times in my career, and I am ready to keep doing it. I think, but that's not easy."

Nadal however noted that amid the injury setbacks, his love of Tennis has always been the driving force for him to get back on court and compete as a sportsman.

"It's a very simple thing: I like what I do," he said.

"I like playing tennis. I know it's not forever. I like to feel myself competitive.

"I like to fight for the things that I have been fighting for almost half of my life or even more.

"When you do things that you like to do, at the end of the day, it's not a sacrifice.

"Sacrifice is when you are doing things that you don't want to do.

"And that was not my case. But of course, it's tiring and frustrating to [spend] a lot of my tennis career on recovering process and trying to fight against all this stuff all the time.

"But I accept it quite well during all my tennis career, and I was able to manage it well.

"But of course [the] last seven months have been, again, another tough period of time. I don't know what can happen in the future."