Nadal beats Brit Norrie but says biggest win is against back injury
Rafael Nadal gave a positive update on his fitness after defeating Britain’s Cameron Norrie to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open.
The second seed came into the tournament carrying a back problem that affected his service motion but revealed yesterday that it was finally starting to feel better.
That is certainly timely news given his draw looks set to get much harder from here, with flamboyant Italian Fabio Fognini next up tomorrow.
Fognini has beaten Nadal in four of their 16 meetings, including from two sets down at the US Open in 2015.
He was 6-4 6-3 6-4 winner over final Australian hope Alex De Minaur.
After beating Norrie 7-5 6-2 7-5, Nadal said: “Today it is better. It’s the first day I feel an improvement.
“I need to come back to my normal serving. Today is the first day that I started to serve again my normal serve. It has been an important victory for me. The biggest victory is the back is better.”
The main injury concern now surrounds Novak Djokovic, who suspected he tore a stomach muscle during his five-set victory over Taylor Fritz on Friday.
As expected, the world No. 1 did not practise yesterday and it is now a waiting game to see
whether he is able to take to the court against Milos Raonic today.
Daniil Medvedev won the first five-set match of his career despite a mid-match bust-up that led to his coach Gilles Cervara walking out after the Russian lost a two-set lead against Filip Krajinovic.
But the fourth-seed Medvedev recovered to win 6-3 6-3 4-6 3-6 6-0 and reach the fourth round.
In the Women’s Singles, Ashleigh Barty eased into the fourth round. Barty trailed Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova in both sets but recovered to win 6-2 6-4 and set up a clash with American Shelby Rogers in the last 16.
Rogers is through to the fourth round in Melbourne for the first time after beating 21st seed Anett Kontaveit 6-4 6-3.
Elina Svitolina came back from a break down in the first set to rattle off nine successive games and book her place in the fourth round, where she will play unseeded American Jessica Pegula.
Sixth seed Karolina Pliskova was punished for smashing a racket off court during a 7-5 7-5 loss to fellow-czech Karolina Muchova.
After breaking one racket during the first set, which earned her a code violation, she took her frustration out on a second racket as she left the court and received another violation, which saw Muchova awarded the first point of the second set.