Nadal back to normal service on grass court

IT had taken three years, but Rafael Nadal was back on a grass court yesterday and looking deadly serious about the third leg of his calendar Grand Slam attempt. Nadal took to the stately lawns of the Hurlingham Club in Fulham for a match at the Giorgio Armani Classic, and hammered his fellow former French Open champion Stan Wawrinka 6-2, 6-2. ‘I haven’t been able to play on grass with the pandemic and last year I got injured, so I am excited to be back,’ he told a crowd of 1,500. These occasions are some way short of full-blooded competition, but Nadal still looked sharp with no sign that the most famous foot in tennis is giving him trouble. Wawrinka, three times a Slam champion himself, was left in no doubt about the Spaniard’s intentions. ‘Playing Rafa is always difficult, he is in full confidence right now,’ said the Swiss. ‘He won the first two Slams of the year without too many matches before those, so of course he is among the favourites.’ Equally convincing yesterday was Novak Djokovic, Wimbledon’s defending champion, who defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-2, 6-1 while showing few signs of ringrust having taken a break following his quarter-final defeat in Paris. Wawrinka has also been practising with Andy Murray, who he reported was hitting at a high level. The 35-yearold Scot is one of the many names at Wimbledon this year going in with uncertain fitness, but he is said to have been able to resume serving in the past couple of days. It proved to be a memorable day for the Brits at Eastbourne yesterday, Jack Draper leading the way with a 7-5, 7-6 victory over Diego Schwartzman. There were wins, too, for British No 1 Cam Norrie and for Jamie Murray in the men’s doubles, but Dan Evans lost out in straight sets against Maxime Cressy. Three of the six British wins involved Harriet Dart. She spent nearly four hours on court; concluding victory over Jil Teichmann, then claiming another three-setter against Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk before she and Heather Watson teamed up to beat American pair Desirae Krawczyk and Shelby Rogers 7-5, 6-4. Serena Williams, meanwhile, continued her comeback, reaching the doubles semifinals alongside Ons Jabeur.