Rafa in Acapulco, still testing knee
Nadal could opt out of Indian Wells
ACAPULCO, Mexico, Feb 25, (AFP): Rafael Nadal will test his troublesome left knee again this week at the Mexico Open, then decide if he’ll brave the first Masters Series event of the year on the hard courts of Indian Wells.
Spain’s 11-time Grand Slam champion will conclude a three-tournament Latin American comeback tour in Acapulco, playing in his third ATP clay court tournament in four weeks.
He came back from an injury layoff of seven months to reach the final in Vina del Mar, Chile, and followed up by winning the title in Sao Paulo on February 18.
In Brazil he needed just 78 minutes to beat Argentina’s David Nalbandian 6-2, 6-3 in the title match.
But the 26-year-old says he still feels intermittent pain in his left knee and could yet opt out of the hard court tournament at Indian Wells, where men’s main draw play begins on March 7.
Nadal is a two-time champion at the BNP Paribas Open in the California desert east of Los Angeles.
That tournament is immediately followed by the Masters Series event in Miami where he has never won.
“Let’s see how my knee responds in Acapulco. We will discuss what has happened during these three tournaments and what I thought about it,” Nadal said after his Brazil triumph.
“Then we will see if we are ready to play in Indian Wells or not.”
Nadal said it wasn’t the thought of stepping up against top competition like Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and compatriot David Ferrer that caused him to hesitate, nor was it the possible stresses of the hard court surface. Instead it’s just the simple fact that his knee is still not 100 percent.
“It’s better and I’ve been able to compete, but it’s still bothering me,” he said after arriving in Mexico.
“It’s better on some days and worse on others, which isn’t ideal for someone like me, because my idea of competing is based on giving it all at all times.”
In Acapulco, Nadal is the second seed behind Ferrer, the world number four who will arrive in Mexico fresh from a successful title defence in Buenos Aires.
Ferrer, 30, earned his 20th career title and his second of 2013 on Sunday and will be going for a fourth straight Acapulco crown.
The men’s field for this combined ATP and WTA event also includes 2008 champion Nicolas Almagro and Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, a semi-finalist last year who lost to Ferrer in the Buenos Aires final on Sunday.
The women’s field is headed by defending champion Sara Errani.
Nadal may get a chance to ease into the tournament, drawing a qualifier in the first round. A massive security operation has been mounted for the event, prompted by a gang rape earlier this month as well as the brutal ongoing turf war between drug gangs that has seen the Pacific port and longtime tourist destination become Mexico’s deadliest city.
The 4,000-strong security force is three times the size of the city’s own police force and will feature army, navy, federal, state and municipal police, a senior Guerrero state government official told AFP.
It was Kuchar’s fifth triumph on the PGA Tour and his first success in one of the elite World Golf Championships (WGC) events which bring together the game’s leading players.
Defending champion Mahan, who had not trailed in any of his five previous matches this week, never recovered after going three down with a run of four consecutive bogeys from the parthree third.
“I’m not sure I can explain how excited I am to have won this tournament,” the 34-year-old Kuchar told reporters, grinning broadly as he sat next to the cherished Walter Hagen Cup after earning the winner’s cheque for $1.5 million.
“To come out on top after six matches of playing guys, the top 64 guys in the world, it’s an incredible feeling.
“A lot of credit goes to Hunter for staying and fighting the way he did. That four-down deficit had to be tough for him at the turn where things could have easily gone quickly ... he really started playing some good golf.”
Both players wore balaclavas as temperatures dropped to the mid-40s (F) with a wind chill factor of 37 and Mahan faltered early, bogeying the parfour fourth after failing to reach the green in two and hitting a poor chip 20 feet short.
He also bogeyed the fifth, after taking three shots to reach the green, and the par-three sixth, where he threeputted from long range, to go three down.
Kuchar went 4-up with a birdie at the par-five eighth, getting up and down from just off the back of the green while Mahan had to settle for a par after missing the green well to the left with his second shot.
First birdie
Mahan clawed one hole back with a two-putt par at the 10th, where Kuchar bogeyed, before recording his first birdie of the round at the par-five 11th to trim his opponent’s lead to 2up.
As the chilly desert winds gusted up to 30 mph (48.28 kph), Kuchar did well to birdie the par-three 12th where Mahan’s tee shot ended up just five feet from the pin, sinking a 14-footer to stay 2up.
Both Americans failed to reach the green in two at the par-five 13th but Kuchar pitched up to five feet and coolly sank the birdie putt to regain a 3up advantage.
Mahan immediately responded, hitting a pinpoint approach to within three feet of the flag at the par-four 14th for a conceded birdie as Kuchar was again pegged back to 2up.
Though Mahan birdied the driveable par-four 15th, Kuchar matched him by sinking a slick 11-footer before coming unstuck with a bogey at the par-three 16th where his tee shot sailed into a grandstand.
Both players ended up in the right fairway bunker off the tee at the parfour 17th but Mahan, from a relatively poor lie, struck his second shot under a bush in a waste bunker short of the green.
Kuchar’s approach settled within five feet of the flagstick and he watched as Mahan blasted out of the bush for his ball to advance only a few feet. After chipping up to eight feet, Mahan conceded the hole and the match.
“It was a long day,” said Mahan, a five-times winner on the PGA Tour who beat 2010 Match Play champion Ian Poulter 4&3 in the semifinals earlier on Sunday. “Boy, conditions couldn’t have been harder, I don’t think.
“I just had a bad stretch against Matt on the front nine there that put me just a little bit too far behind.”
In the consolation match, Australian Jason Day beat Britain’s Poulter 1up to secure third place.