Nadal loses in three sets to Norrie at United Cup

Rafael Nadal has ended an up-and-down 2022 with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 loss to Britain’s Cameron Norrie at the United Cup mixed teams tournament on Saturday.

Nadal won the Australian Open and French Open to take his career Grand Slam singles total to a leading 22. But foot, rib and abdomen injuries meant he played only four events after Wimbledon in July.

He wasn’t upset by the loss Saturday.

“It was not a disaster at all,” Nadal said. “I can do things better, and I need to do it. But as I said, I have not had many matches. I think he played the first match two days ago. I think that’s an advantage, especially if you win the match the way that he did.”

Norrie failed to win a set in his four previous matches against Nadal.

“It was pretty crazy. I was thinking I’d never won a set before, so I wanted to come out and firstly do that,” Norrie said. “It was a super physical match and I enjoyed it. It’s a great way to end 2022 for me.“

Britain took a 2-0 lead into Sunday after Katie Swan had a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 win over Spain’s Nuria Parrizas-Diaz.

Top-ranked Iga Swiatek beat Yulia Putintseva

6-1, 6-3 at Brisbane. Poland and Kazakhstan were level at 1-1 going into Sunday’s final three matches.

ETC.

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