Rafael Nadal confident ahead of Madrid Open

The five-time Madrid Open winner comes to the Spanish capital without a tournament win on clay this year and was recently beaten by Dominic Thiem in Barcelona.

Nadal, who will face Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime on Wednesday, said in his pre-match press conference that he was looking forward to playing in Madrid again and insisted he was feeling confident, despite his lack of success on clay so far in 2019.

"My confidence is back, I really believe that I made very good improvements to create a good base to try to achieve my goals during the next couple of weeks," said Nadal.

"Against Thiem, I played a good match. I was competitive and I enjoyed the match. I really felt competitive for the first time in a way that I want to feel myself. I am happy and I am confident that I made a big improvement," he insisted.

However, the Spaniard insisted that even if he failed to win in Madrid, it would not affect his chances of winning a 12th French Open title.

"The main thing is to get a good feeling back in my body and my game. I don't think that I need to win here in order to win in 'Roland Garros'; what I need to do is play well," said Nadal.

Nadal also welcomed the return of Roger Federer, who will play in his first clay court tournament since 2016.

"The main thing isn't how I feel about his return, it's how the supporters feel about it and I think it is good news for everyone," he said.