Rafael Nadal returned from a year-long injury-inflicted hiatus from tennis at the 2024 Brisbane International. Although he withdrew from the Australian Open due to a muscle injury, he returned in the clay court season in Barcelona and Madrid. His Rome Open started with a 3-set win over Zizou Bergs.
Rafael Nadal has been one of the biggest tennis names in the last 20+ years. Since he turned pro in 2001, he’s gone ahead to win 22 Grand Slam titles. Termed the King of Clay, he’s won 14 of his Grand Slams in the French Open, including holding the record of the longest winning streak on a single surface with 81 wins on clay court between April 2005 and May 2007.
This season is most likely going to be the end of Nadal’s tennis career and the tennis legend received a well-deserved farewell after his Rome Open second round match.
Hurkacz Earns Nearly Flawless Victory In Rome Open
After the first game of the first set, Rafael Nadal found himself on the back foot for most of the match. In the first set, Hubert Hurkacz was nearly flawless.
En route to a 6-1 first-set win that put Nadal’s continued participation in the Rome Open in doubt, the Polish world number 9 saved all seven break points he faced, converting two of the five he created. He also dominated Nadal in all his service games, hitting six aces and scoring 17 of his 22 first-serve points.
Hurkacz also proved more clinical in the second set, hitting three more aces and five winners. He also never faced a single break point in the entire second set, while converting two of his own to win the set 6-3 and defeat Rafael Nadal.
Medvedev’s Rome Open Title Defence Off To A Good Start
Daniil Medvedev’s hunt for his second Rome Open title is still on after defeating Jack Draper in two sets, 7-5, 6-4, after an impressive showing from both players.
In a closely contested first set, Daniil Medvedev dominated the stats as he won more points in his first and second serve than the British Jack Draper.
Both of these fiery tennis players kept exchanging breaks of each other’s serves until Medvedev got the break of Draper’s serve in the 12th game of the set.
The second set played out similar to the first, with Medvedev dominating the stats again in a closely fought encounter. Both players exchanged breaks of serves again with Draper dominating Medvedev at the net.
Also Read: Top Seeds Earn Easy Rome Open 2nd Round Victories
Other Top Seeds Through To The 3rd Round
The number 9 seed, Alex de Minaur defeated Spanish Roberto Carballes Baena, 6-3, 6-2, today to start his Rome Open campaign. After getting knocked out by Márton Fucsovics in the second round last year, everyone expected a better showing this year.
After a third-round defeat in Madrid to Francisco Cerundolo, Tommy Paul started his Rome Open by defeating Aslan Karatsev, 6-4, 6-2, in a game where unforced errors let the Russian down.
The number 21 seed Nicolas Jarry also defeated fans favorite Matteo Arnaldi in two sets, 6-2, 7-6. The first set had the Chilean veteran dominating the young Italian at the net, while also smashing seven winners past him. The second set was much closer, heading into a tie-break. Jarry went on to save seven set points in the tie-break to win the match.
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Ebenezer has been an avid writer for over a decade and a half. Within that period, he has garnered experience in various fields such as editing, graphics design, transcribing, sales, data analysis, and football management.
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