Rafael Nadal made his return from a two-month layoff on Friday, but the Spanish tennis superstar was clearly rusty as he suffered a lopsided 6-2, 6-0 loss to Andy Murray at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi.

Nadal, who missed the final two months of competition last year after undergoing appendectomy, struggled right from the beginning of his match against Murray, who quickly took advantage of his rival's poor start.

The 14-time Grand Slam champion failed to get into his rhythm in the match as Murray cruised to the lopsided win in just one hour and 28 minutes.

While he absorbed a humiliating loss to Murray, Nadal said he just needs to make small adjustments for his next matches heading into the 2015 Australian Open.

"This was not the best start possible against a tough rival in Andy Murray, but there are only small things I need to adjust," Nadal said via Gulf News. "At the beginning, I played very badly with my backhand, but that is normal after a long time out, and could not get my normal rhythm. I was also a little bit more tired than usual."

Nadal, who also missed three months of action last year after sustaining a wrist injury following a disappointing performance at the 2014 Wimbledon tournament, saw a lot of positives in his game against Murray. He said that the lopsided result does not reflect how well he played for the entire match coming off a long layoff.

"6-2, 6-0 is too much. I had a lot of chances to have a closer result," Nadal added. "I have to improve, that's obvious, and I'm going to improve. This match helps me and the defeat does not affect me too much. I felt I was dominating the points a lot of times, but I am missing competitive spirit. I am going to keep working hard."

Murray echoed Nadal's statement, saying that he had a tough time beating the 28-year-old superstar on Friday.

Murray, who won against Feliciano Lopez in his opening match in Dubai on Thursday, will face Novak Djokovic in the final of the three-day tournament.

Djokovic defeated Stan Wawrinka 6-1, 6-2 on Friday to arrange a showdown with Murray on Saturday.

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