Give me more time before judging me, says Nadal

Rafael Nadal's worst defeat on a claycourt for nine years offered ammunition to the naysayers but the Spaniard says his recovery from knee injury should be judged over time.

The seven-times French Open champion's narrow loss to Argentine world No. 73 Horacio Zeballos in Vina del Mar on Sunday was rightly regarded as a shock as Nadal's defeats on clay over the past eight years can be counted on two hands.

Even those rare reversals have come against players of the calibre of Roger Federer and, most notably Novak Djokovic in 2011 and the last time he lost to a player outside the world's top 20 on clay was five years ago in Rome when former World No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero got the upper hand.

You have to go back to Palermo in 2004, before Nadal had won his first French title, to find the Spaniard losing to one of the game's journeymen, Frenchman Olivier Mutis who was then ranked outside the top 100.

Zeballos, who had never won a title before, played admirably but Nadal was clearly not firing on all cylinders despite reaching the final without dropping a set.

The analysis began immediately afterwards with all eyes focussed on Nadal's movement for signs of the left knee problems that meant he had not played since a shock defeat at Wimbledon last year to Lukas Rosol.

Nadal's defeat was only his fifth in 41 claycourt finals with the others coming against Federer and Djokovic.

"I was two points away from winning the title, but I said from first day that the result was not the most important thing, although I would've liked to win," he said.

"To win four matches in a row is good news for me."

Nadal moves on to Sao Paulo this week for an indoor claycourt tournament and after a week off completes his south American comeback in Acapulco, Mexico.