Rusty Nadal, angry Djokovic advance at Italian Open
Rafael Nadal still has to shed some rustiness following a seven-month break from tennis as he prepares to chase a recordextending 13th French Open title.
Novak Djokovic, meanwhile, still appears to have some anger issues two weeks after getting kicked out of the U.S. Open for unintentionally hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball in a fit of anger.
Nadal’s first tournament back ended with a 6-2, 7-5 loss to Diego Schwartzman in the quarterfinals of the Italian Open on Saturday. That was after Djokovic earned a verbal warning for smashing his racket on the red clay midway through a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win over German qualifier Dominik Koepfer.
Nadal, a nine-time champion in Rome, had never lost to the 15thranked Schwartzman in nine previous meetings. But Schwartzman dictated the baseline rallies and produced a series of drop-shot winners as Nadal uncharacteristically made unforced errors and struggled to get his first serve into play.
For two months during the lockdown, Nadal said, he didn’t touch a tennis racket.
“It’s a completely special year — an unpredictable year,” Nadal said. “At least I played three matches.”
While Nadal won his opening two matches this week in straight sets, his rustiness showed from the start against Schwartzman.
Nadal committed nearly twice as many unforced errors as Schwartzman, 30 to 17, and won only 29 of 63 points on his serve – resulting in five breaks.
“Losing that many serves you can’t expect to win a match,” Nadal said. “So something that I have to fix. I know how to do it.”
Nadal, who chose not to play the U.S. Open due to travel concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic, had not played a tournament since winning a title in Acapulco, Mexico, in February. He now has one week to regroup before he attempts to win a recordextending 13th French Open title.
Roland Garros starts next weekend.
“I’m going to keep working and keep practicing with the right attitude and I’m going to try to give [myself] a chance to be ready,” Nadal said.
Schwartzman came up with a series of clutch shots, perhaps none better than during the second game of the second set when he won a 17-shot rally to save a break point by running down a drop shot and passing Nadal with a forehand that landed on the line.
“It was my best match ever,” Schwartzman said.
Earlier on Campo Centrale, when Djokovic was broken at love to even the second set at 3-3, he reacted by breaking his racket, earning a warning from the chair umpire.
Aiming for his fifth title in Rome, Djokovic’s semifinal opponent will be Casper Ruud, who eliminated local favorite Matteo Berrettini 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) in a match that lasted 2 hours, 57 minutes.
Schwartzman will next face Denis Shapovalov, who held off Grigor Dimitrov 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.
In the women’s tournament, top-seeded Simona Halep reached the last four when Kazakh opponent Yulia Putintseva retired midway through their match due to a lower back injury.
Halep was ahead 6-2,
2-0 when Putintseva decided she was in too much pain to continue – having already taken an off-court medical timeout between sets. Muguruza required more than two hours to eliminate U.S. Open runner-up Victoria Azarenka 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
The other semifinal will feature last year’s French Open runner-up Marketa Vondrousova against efending champion Karolina Pliskova. Vondrousova beat Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-0, and Pliskova defeated Elise Mertens 6-3, 3-6, 6-0.
ETC.
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