A diesel Nadal is also worth

A little rusty, uncomfortable, more erratic than expected but surviving, which is what counts.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
01 September 2022 Thursday 02:34
21 Reads
A diesel Nadal is also worth

A little rusty, uncomfortable, more erratic than expected but surviving, which is what counts. He takes a lot to defeat Rafa Nadal in a Grand Slam match. So much so that in 2022 nobody can say that he has beaten the Mallorcan in a big game on the track. Only the untimely abdominal injury kept him out of Wimbledon without being able to take the court in the semifinals. The rest, win after win. Both in Australia, as in Roland Garros, in London and in New York. If Nadal returned to the courts of the All England Club in June, absent on the grass since 2019, on Tuesday night he returned to Arthur Ashe, the largest tennis court in the world, land that he had not stepped on for three years.

His last memory was the victory in the final of that edition against Daniil Medvedev to enter his fourth title at the US Open. On this occasion neither the match, in the first round, nor the rival, the new Australian Rinky Hijikata, had the same glamor but a harassed Nadal gave the spectators at least one session with emotions, changes of direction and, above all, version extended. 3 hours and 8 minutes that help him pick up the pace since the player from Manacor was only playing his second game in fifty days. The first was lost in his Cincinnati debut against Coric. Hijikata, with only one victory in his entire career on the circuit, hoped to emulate him but in the end gave up the spoon against Nadal's perseverance (4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3). His 20th consecutive Grand Slam win this season.

Logically it was not the most brilliant version of the Mallorcan. If normally Nadal, as a good long-distance runner, enters tournaments in diesel mode to gain temperature as the rounds go by, now that set-up is accentuated by caution and inactivity. When it's not the foot, it's the abdomen, but Nadal continues to struggle. When he has to serve he does it very rigidly, but he combated his lack of flexibility with craft and competitive spirit.

“I didn't play a good match with my serve and that made me a little nervous at the beginning. Bearing in mind where I come from, it was a day to just do the job and that's what I did”, admitted Nadal, who congratulated himself on reuniting with the New York public. “Coming back here after three years and in the night session has been exciting and very special. In a not too distant time I did not know if I would return here.

In the second round an old acquaintance awaits him, nothing to do with the fledgling Hijikata. This is the Italian Fabio Fognini, who knows what it is to beat Nadal. He has done it four times (for thirteen losses), one of them precisely in Flushing Meadows. It was in the distant 2015 when he was able to lift two sets against the Mallorcan. Fognini is far from the level of then but Nadal can not be misled. The match will be played today in a day that will also see the confrontation between Carlos Alcaraz and the Argentine Fede Coria.

In the women's box it will be the turn of Paula Badosa. The Catalan, married to irregularity, came out ahead in her debut against the Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko (number 87 in the world) despite giving up the first round and committing up to 57 unforced errors (3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3). The Croatian Petra Martic is waiting for him.