Nadal’s Barcelona return ended by De Minaur

Rafa Nadal’s hopes of winning the Barcelona Open for a 13th time were dashed on Wednesday following a 7-5 6-1 second round defeat by Australian fourth seed Alex de Minaur.

The Spaniard was playing his first tournament since January and had made a winning return on Tuesday with his first round victory over Flavio Cobolli, but the 37-year-old was no match for the in-form De Minaur.

“Alex is a great player. In terms of tennis today, he was in better shape than me,” Nadal said.

“He...