Rafael Nadal's knee has been one of the hottest topics of conversation in the tennis world for nearly seven months now.
The Spaniard made his comeback from the injury which kept him out since Wimbledon last year, when he lost in the second round to Lukas Rosol, in winning fashion in the doubles section, teaming up with fellow Spaniard Juan Monaco.
Nadal, who showed little signs of discomfort, and Monaco eased past the Czech pair of Lukas Dlouhy and Frantisek Cermak 6-3, 6-2 at the VTR Open in Chile in a little over an hour of play.
The former world number one has chosen the low-key tournament in Chile as the perfect platform to test his knees, with the Spaniard scheduled to play his first singles match Wednesday.
While it is difficult to gauge Nadal's fitness on the back of one doubles match, the 26-year-old was not too willing to talk about the knee either, instead wanting to focus on the performance on the court.
"The knee -- I said it when I got here," Nadal said. "I would prefer not to keep talking about the topic. At the end of the day the doctors have said it's OK.
"There is no risk of making it worse. My knee keeps hurting. But the fact I am playing here is a thing of joy.
"I am not 100 percent, I need some weeks. If it hurts, it hurts and we'll put up with it. I am here to play tennis, with or without pain. ... I'm happy to have played an official game, although it was doubles."
Federico Delbonis will get a lot more attention than he is usually used to with the Argentine scheduled to face Nadal in the first round of the singles campaign on his favorite clay surface.
If Nadal shows little signs of the knee trouble, he will undoubtedly again be the favorite to lift the French Open, a Grand Slam he has made his own over the past several years.
"I need for the knee be stronger, to be more comfortable playing all out," Nadal added. "There are days when the knee is not comfortable. ... Today (Tuesday) I am in the second round of doubles and tomorrow I start in singles.
"I'm not going to speak more about the knee. What's coming up is tennis, and that's why I am here to try to play as well as I can.
"The more hours I am on the court, the better. Today was important, but in another aspect it wasn't so important. The most important was just to be here.
"There is no doubt that perhaps the result here is not the overriding thing. I'll do all I can to win and play as well as I can."
Nadal is scheduled to play in tournaments in Brazil and Mexico following the one in Chile.
