He will now look to the US Open at the end of the month, where he will aim to win his fifth crown at Flushing Meadows and his 23rd Grand Slam singles title.
“The main thing for me is to stay healthy,” Nadal told reporters. “It was a tough injury to deal with, to be honest.
“The last month and a half hasn’t been easy because, having a tear in your abdomen, you don’t know when (you’ll be) 100 per cent on the thing, so it affects me a bit in terms of no ( being) confident that you are capable of performing your best on every serve.”
Nadal had two set points in the opening set tie-break but failed to convert either, including when he threw a forehand volley wide before a double foul only gives Ćorić an early lead in the game.
The Spaniard fought back in the second set to tie the game, but Ćorić broke at 3-2 in the deciding match and saw the set to earn his third win over Nadal in five encounters.
Ćorić, out for more than a year after undergoing shoulder surgery in May 2021, finished the match with 39 winners and will face another Spaniard, Roberto Bautista Agut, in the third round.
“It’s hard to take a lot of positive things, but I have to improve,” Nadal said.
“I need to train. I need to come back better. I need days (on the pitch), and that’s the truth. Obviously, I had my chances at the start. At the tie -break, I had two important chances with two sets points that I played terribly with two more or less easy shots.”
Nadal’s last US Open title came in 2019, and since then he has won three more Grand Slam victories to overtake Roger Federer at the top of the men’s all-time list.
This year’s tournament in New York will begin on August 29.
