Nadal reins in power serve as back pain returns
RAFAEL NADAL sounded the alarm about the state of his back after making it through to the last 16 of the French Open.
Although he has lost only 19 games in getting this far and yesterday defeated Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer 6-2, 7-5, 6-2, he revealed that stiffness is causing him to reduce the power in his serve.
Nadal was hit by back problems in the Australian Open final and, prior to this event, suffered three defeats on clay, which is unprecedented for him since beginning his domination of Roland Garros nine years ago.
‘I felt my back a little bit, so that’s why I slowed down the serve,’ he said.
‘I felt it a little bit from the beginning and in the second match I was not serving that fast, too. I had a few strappings on and in the second set I was feeling the pain.
‘During my career, I have had a few problems so always things can happen. Hopefully, it will not be the case here.’
Meanwhile, Ana Ivanovic’s long wait to follow up on her 2008 French Open title goes on after she crashed out of the third round 6-3, 6-3 to Czech Lucie Safarova. Four of the top five seeds have now gone, with Petra Kvitova ousted 6-7, 6-1, 9-7 by Svetlana Kuznetsova, showing just how open women’s tennis is.
Ivanovic was starting to look like the player to beat, but then Safarova is a player who always gives her nightmares, having beaten her on their four previous meetings.
Her left-hander’s ability to sweep the ball away from the formidable Ivanovic forehand is the key, and it all turned out like the 26-year-old from Belgrade had dreaded.
‘She’s a lefty, it’s not something we face every day and the ball comes a little bit differently,’ said Ivanovic. ‘In the beginning, I felt like I had a lot of chances I didn’t use. If I did, the match maybe would have had a different tone to it. I’m really disappointed that I lost, but she played hard.
‘I lost to her a lot of times before. So I knew she was going to be dangerous.’
The highest seed remaining in her half of the draw now is Heather Watson’s conqueror, Romanian Simona Halep, with Maria Sharapova facing an awkward test today on the other side of the draw, against Australian Samantha Stosur.